Run, My HiME!
by Z2
Summary: Akane and Ranma are invited by a famous private school, Fuka Gakuen. Deciding to go there to escape from Nerima's usual antics, they only find even more problems...
1. Chapter 1

**Notes**

I've decided to upload this now, even though I could still improve it. I'm looking for pre-readers, so, if anyone wants to help me…

In any case, this is a My HiME / Ranma crossover, it focuses mostly on Ranma 1/2 characters, using the characters from My HiME as a 'new' secondary cast of sorts. That's not to say that they won't be important, specially considering that most of the fic will be a remake of My HiME with Ranma characters thrown in, but it'll follow mostly Ranma's and Akane's point of views.

At least, initially, I'll stay with the canon pairings, and so far, I only have planned one non-canon pairing, though it'll happen only much later.

Don't expect me to follow My HiME's continuity completely. The plot will be mostly the same, but there will be more HiMEs than in the original series, and I might change a few minor background elements too.

I don't own Ranma 1/2 or My HiME...

**Run, My HiME!**

**Chapter 1- Good bye, Nerima?**

"Fuka Gakuen?" Nabiki's eyes bulged upon reading that name. "You mean… _The_ Fuka Gakuen?"

"Yes, they've sent an invitation for Akane." Soun Tendo replied while his middle daughter could only look at him in shock.

"Bu-But… Why Akane? Her grades aren't even that good!" Nabiki angrily snorted, taking the letter from Soun's hand.

"And that's not all." Mr. Tendo continued.

"What…?"

"According to that letter, Akane and one other person will receive a free scholarship." Tendo stopped for a moment, before drinking a cup of tea.

"And that other person is Ranma!" Genma suddenly shouted. "After that wedding fiasco, it'll be good to let those two stay away from here for a while".

Nabiki closed her eyes and sighted. "Ok, first, Akane gets invited by a renowned private school while I'm ignored, and, now, Ranma, my main source of income, is going there too!" That definitely wasn't a good day. However, she wasn't about to let her life be turned upside down just like that…

/-

A girl stood alone, looking at the entrance of a large building. Several months ago, that building, Furinkan High, was known as an eccentric institute, however, in those last months, it had become much more. Many battles, adventures and troubles had taken place there. However, one looking at the empty building, devoid of the usual lively students, deafening sounds, wouldn't believe in tales of everything that happened there in the last year.

The short black hair of the girl was waving back and forth by the cold wind blowing through that courtyard. She wore a modest blue and white dress, the feminine uniform of that school. Countless memories from her entire life went through her mind as she examined that place that had been so familiar to her. That'd be probably the last time she would go there, and she couldn't help but feel sentimental about it, after spending a good part of her life in that school.

Ranma quickly skimmed through ceilings of nearby houses. After the entrance became visible to him, he made a quick stop, before somersaulting towards Akane. He landed swiftly, slowly walking towards her. Akane wasn't looking at the school any longer, but towards the moon which slowly appeared as the sky darkened.

"Hey!" Ranma exclaimed, but quickly was frustrated as he received no answer. "What's it?" He wondered, staring at the moon, like his fiancée was doing, but there wasn't anything peculiar. After a few moments of awkward silence, he stared at Akane.

"Are you daydreaming again, tomboy?"

"Ah… Ranma?" Akane's eyes shined, as they became alive again, the strange void shown by them quickly vanishing. However, instead of the expected angry glare towards him, Akane's expression still seemed empty.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that! Get angry or something!"

"You're used to it, right?" A small smiled seemed to have been drawn on her face, but she still seemed weird to Ranma.

"Used to… what…? You aren't making any sense today." He noted loudly.

"Moving…" Akane muttered, as Ranma finally understood what was going on. "You've traveled to many places… But… I've lived all my life here… in this place…" her hands grasped her blue dress, the uniform of the Furinkan High school.

Akane's eyes were wet, barely holding her tears. Ranma's hand rested on his fiancée's shoulder, trying to comfort her as well as he could. "Hey, don't worry. It might seem a little weird in the beginning, but you'll get along just fine."

"Ranma…?" She looked at him with surprise. That reaction definitely wasn't expected. They seemed lost in each other's eyes for a brief moment, but the spell was quickly ended as a bicycle suddenly fell on him, burying his face on the ground.

"Shampoo landed wrong…" The purple haired Amazon muttered, watching as Ranma quickly recomposed himself.

"Not again…" Ranma exclaimed, staring at Shampoo. "Well, this is probably the last day anything like this will happen, right?". Saotome added silently, his face suddenly lighting up.

"Hey, Shampoo! So, did you come to say good bye! So, I guess you'll stay with Mousse, right?" Ranma joked, just before getting a bicycle thrown at him.

"He had that coming…" Akane sighed watching as Shampoo slowly walked towards Ranma.

"Shampoo won't let husband go away! That school is cursed!" Shampoo shouted at him, who was still smiling.

"Okay, okay, Shampoo… meeting you was fun, but…" Ranma worriedly took a few steps back, as the amazon continued walking towards him.

"Shampoo is serious! She won't let that girl boyish take husband to a cursed place!" She shouted again, glaring at Akane.

"I'm not the one who invited him!" The black haired girl answered back to Shampoo, who stared angrily at her. Fiery sparks going between each other, as sweating Ranma stood in the middle of them.

"Ok-Ok. Calm down, girls. I know I'm handsome, but there's no reason to-"

"Shut up!" Akane punched her fiancé, propelling him towards the clouds.

1 minute later, a loud crash was heard, and a new crater appeared in the school's courtyard.

/-

"What!" Tatewaki Kuno slammed his trembling hands on a wooden table, the impact was so great that it was broken apart, several fragments ricocheting through the room. "That devious Saotome has made a ploy to take my dear Akane away from me?"

"Tha-That's not what I said, Mr. Kuno." The informant stood in front of him, trembling as his angry boss glared at him.

"You don't need to inform every detail, fool! This is obviously an evil plan of that devious Saotome to keep Akane Tendo away from her beloved one! I bet he's also taking the pigtailed girl with him, enslaved in his monstrous spells." After cursing that turn of events, the kendo captain sighted "However… Fuka Gauken, wasn't it?" He grinned. "Tell father that I'll be departing tomorrow. I'm transferring to that place."

"Wha… What!"

"YES!" Tatewaki exclaimed. "Ranma! Don't think you'll ever keep my dear Akane away from me!"

/-

Nerima, a small district of Tokyo which had come to be renowned because of the strange events which happened there during the last months, would host the beginning of yet another series of events during that night.

Near Nerima, there was a district which also had come to be infamous, however, their similarities ended there. While Nerima was mostly a weird but inoffensive place, that suburb concentrated a high amount of criminal activity. Small, unlit roads were spread all over the place. The only people walking under those shadows were, to say the least, suspicious. Thieves, motor gangs and various other delinquents practiced "night activities" without disturbance from any authority.

In one of the uncountable alleys of that place, two figures were talking to each other. One of them was a middle aged man, in his 40s, dressed in a severely dirty coat. His face held a grin as his hands slipped through a pack of money continuously. The other one, wearing a single piece leather cloth, typically worn by bikers, examined a picture in his, no… her hand. Even though her face was hidden by a mirrored headpiece, and her chest wasn't particularly endowed, the feminine curves of her body were clearly visible through her clothes.

The woman placed the picture in a pocket and swiftly climbed on a motorcycle. Her feet pressing the pedals as the vehicle's main light turned on, quickly rushing towards the nearby block.

/

"Uncute. Tomboy. Gorilla."

"I've already told you I'm sorry!" As if the past moments had never existed, the two teens were back to bickering again. Ranma seemed somewhat dirty from the fall, but had no real wounds. Shampoo was latched on him, smiling widely as he continued to badmouth Akane.

"Now, husband will stay with Shampoo, right?" The purple haired Amazon dreamily whispered, panicking Ranma, who suddenly leaped away from her.

"Eh… Shampoo, you know … but…" Ranma took a few steps back, muttering some words incoherently. That couldn't end well.

/-

Standing at the ceiling of a nearby building, the biker examined intently the three who were walking together. The one she was looking for was there… but, what could she do about the others? There wasn't much time to spare. She'd have to go now.

/

"Wait." Ranma said as he suddenly leaped out of Shampoo's grasp. "I've got a bad feeling about this…" He said looking at the face of a confused Akane. Quickly, all three got into battle positions.

In a short moment, a black silhouette dropped from the sky, kicking Shampoo on the back of her neck, with enough force to knock her down in an instant. The attacker quickly looked at Saotome's direction, and rushed towards him. She lowered her fist, and sped it up towards Ranma's chest, but he easily moved beside her, avoiding the attack and counter attacking with a low kick of his own. The girl managed to do a short hop, jumping just over his foot, and landing right behind him.

"What do you want!" Ranma shouted aggressively as he turned around. He couldn't see any features of that girl. Was she another crazy fiancée? Akane approached him step by step as the biker remained still.

/

Natsuki had to admit, she was impressed by that boy. Ever since she had awakened and started using her powers, her reflexes and strength had been severely increased, but that guy actually could match her without any problems at all. However, she hadn't even started yet…

She lowered her arms, making the palm of her hands face the two remaining teens.

"What is she…" Akane's unfinished question quickly was answered as two glowing balls of light appeared on the girls hands, vanishing just as fast as they appeared. However, in their place, there were two pistols. They looked like small revolvers, but had strange gray balls in their center. Natsuki raised her hands, one towards Ranma, another towards Akane.

"Leave her." The stranger spoke with a cold, harsh voice.

"What?" Ranma's confused expression quickly turned into anger. "So, she's after Akane…" He looked at her face, and nodded. Even though Akane didn't like what that meant, she understood it.

"Ok!" She turned back and started running. Answering that action, the biker quickly reacted, running towards her; however, she was intercepted as Ranma stood in her way.

Natsuki quickly jumped back, standing completely erect. "You won't make this easy, heh? Well, boy, you shouldn't mess with matters which have nothing to do with you." Her stance relaxed as a thick blue fog swiftly emerged all around her body. The circular torrent advanced towards Ranma, before abruptly stopping, and condensing, becoming a layer of ice. The new material broke down quickly revealing a metallic creature. The martial artist took a few steps back upon seeing it as he raised his guard. A silver mechanical wolf with two large metallic tubes, probably cannons, installed on its back had appeared from the ice coffin.

The wolf swung its head, getting rid of some of the ice which remained on its body. After cleaning itself, it howled to the nocturne sky. "Duran, go!" The woman shouted as she ran past Ranma.

"Hey, wait!" The confused martial artist shouted, without receiving a reply, just before the wolf leaped on him, smashing him against a wall. Duran quickly turned towards its owner, but before it could move, Ranma rocketed towards it, headbutting the creature, and propelling it to the other side of the street.

It looked curiously at Ranma, before glaring at him again, its yellow eyes lighting up. "This isn't good…" Saotome muttered. The skin of that thing was harder than Ryoga's, and it had a fairly impressive speed. Besides everything, the wolf hadn't even used its weapons yet. He cursed silently, just before the monster leaped towards him again.

/-

Two bullets sparked the street in front of Akane, who reacted by quickly turning back to look at her pursuer. The biker stood calmly, her right arm raised, pointing towards the frightened girl.

As she looked at the stranger, Akane's fear was replaced by anger. She ran towards Natsuki, who pressed the trigger of her weapon. The Tendo rose swiftly dodging the incoming shot, and landing behind her adversary.

"Why… why are you doing this!" Akane yelled bitterly at the mysterious woman.

"Can you see that red star?" The mysterious woman pointed at the full moon that had already risen over the nocturne sky.

Akane looked at the familiar heavenly body, a small red star shinning in front of the lower half of the moon. Recently an ominous red star had become visible to her, and only her. She had actually started to think that she was getting crazy, or that everyone was pulling a big joke on her, however, at that moment, it became obvious that it wasn't the case. After all, there was that woman, mentioning the red star.

Natsuki noticed the recognition expressed by the empty eyes of that girl. "You can see it… Just remember. Don't go to Fuka Gakuen, or you'll die."

Akane continued in a stunned state, as the silver wolf approached the unknown woman, who hoped on it. They jumped quickly, disappearing among the houses. It only took a moment for Akane to get up again. "Ranma!" She mentally exclaimed as she ran through the streets to find him slowly staggering towards her. He looked severely bruised, his Chinese shirt torn to shreds; upon resting his eyes on Akane, he managed to hold a weak smile before losing any remaining strength, and dropping his body on the street as everything around him darkened.

/-

"This is great!" Ranma Saotome shouted enthusiastically as the sea winding blew through his hair. There he was, standing at the top of a large ship, which was traveling through the sea towards Fuka Gakuen. Nerima, and all the craziness there, had been left behind. No more Kuno, nor Kodachi, nor Shampoo, nor Nabiki, nor any of the other loonies!

His body still hadn't recovered completely from yesterdays beating, but it was a minor problem. That martial artist had already started planning a new training program in order to match that metallic wolf from the other night. The only thing he still had to worry about was…

"RANMA!"

That unmistakable feminine voice distracted Saotome for just a moment, but it was enough to make him lose his footing and fall head on the floor.

"Ranma?" Akane quickly ran towards him, her eyes focusing on his battered self as her brows shacked slightly, in a mix of concern and anger. "What were you doing up there? You still haven't recovered!"

"I'm fine." Ranma muttered as he got out of his fianceé's reach. He turned his back to Akane, looking at the sea. "That thing, yesterday, what happened?"

"I'd like to know too, Ranma isn't beaten like that every day." Said another female voice.

"That was… WHAT!" Akane suddenly glared at source of that commentary. Nabiki. Ranma turned towards them, a bad feeling running through his spine. The younger Tendo stepped towards her sister, curious "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't let my little sister go to some unknown place alone!" Nabiki grinned as Akane's curiosity turned into anger.

"You didn't..." The youngest Tendo replied while staring intently at her sister. "Nabiki, you didn't…"

"Akane, my beloved, I'm here to protect you!" Tatewaki stated happily as he landed between the Tendos and Ranma.

"Heh. I needed money to come, so, I sold some information to your friend here!" Nabiki held a large grin while saying those words. "See you later!" She quickly rushed out of Ranma's sight, using the shock created by Kuno's appearance.

"Great… just, great…" Ranma and Akane muttered in unison. That would be a long trip…


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes**

Second chapter!

This chapter ended up much bigger than expected… So, it has been divided in two parts. This is the first, soon I'll post the second one (which is mostly completed, and just needs a few changes to stand on its own.)

-I'm still looking for a prereader, especially for grammar…

/-

Shampoo unwillingly carried a small jewel box towards a large bag, gazing absently at the walls of the empty room she crossed. "Do we really need to…?" She pleaded to no one in particular. That day just seemed like a stupid nightmare to her. After everything she had gone through the entire year, her great grandma had suddenly decided that they should go back to China. Needless to say, Shampoo wasn't taking that very well.

"Are you still moping around?" Cologne burst into the room, which had already been emptied, even though Shampoo had been working in a stupidly slow pace.

"Shampoo can still track Ranma! No need to give up because of weird school!" The Amazon exclaimed to her elder, who replied with a quiet negative nod.

"This has nothing to do with son-in-law. There are… other matters which we need to take care of." The wrinkled old woman looked at the young girl standing in front of her with complacency. Dark times were coming ahead…

**Run, My HiME!**

**Chapter 2- Vacation ½!**

The cruiser was still on the sea, sailing towards Fuka Gakuen, a cool breeze blowing through the deck, the ship's crew walked around doing their business, while the passengers appreciated the scenario. The only element disturbing the illusion of peacefulness was a periodic metallic noise, coming from the center of the ship. It almost seemed like someone was trying to break through it…

Ranma looked at the sea, smiling. The trip hadn't been as bad as expected after Nabiki's little surprise. It had been easy enough to deal with Kuno, and he'd probably stay down there at least a few hours. "I guess this signals a new, lucky, beginning!" Or that's what he though, before being drenched by a burst of water.

"Huh… excuse me, miss!" One of the sailors hurriedly pulled away a hose which had been broken, spraying water through the deck.

"Some things never change…," Ranma sighed. Ok, maybe things weren't changing, after all. Standing where a boy had been just a moment ago there was a petite redhead, wearing clothes which seemed rather unfitting for her frame, masculine and baggy ones, water slipping through her soaked clothes. "Stupid curse…"

Akane, wearing a conservative yellow dress, approached her curiously. "Ranma, what happened to Kuno?"

"I've locked him in a basement down there. It wasn't too hard…". The redhead turned towards Akane, her smile vanishing. "Hey, what do you think about that place, Fuka Gakuen?"

"I- I don't know… I'm not sure." Her uncertain eyes crossed path with Ranma's apprehensively. She didn't like to feel doubtful or weak, though it had happened way too many times during the last year. "At first, I thought Shampoo might have been just lying to you, however, there was that girl…"

"Was she from Fuka Gakuen?" Ranma approached her inquisitively. Akane hadn't actually talked about what happened after she had run away from the weird woman.

"I don't know about that." The youngest Tendo stared at the floor for a while, before lifting her face and facing Ranma again. "However, she told me that, if I went to Fuka Gakuen, I'd die."

"A death threat?" Ranma grinned. "It can't be that serious. Look, next time she appears, I'll destroy that metallic wolf for sure. She didn't seem to be strong without it."

"That's not what I'm talking about, idiot!" Akane exclaimed. "She could have been telling me about the curse that Shampoo mentioned!"

"That's a good point." Ranma flinched. His experiences with curses hadn't been very good. That seemed like a real treat. An awkward silence followed those words for several minutes, the background noises fading away as they thought about that situation.

"Let's not get worried about that!" The redhead expressed, lighting up her face as she slammed her fists against each other, trying to stop that annoying silence. "Even if it's a curse, it can't be too bad!"

Akane's face brightened. "You're most likely right. I mean, if there was a dangerous curse, we'd have heard about it before, right?", they probably had been getting worried over nothing.

"What's that?" Ranma exclaimed as she watched a crowd gather in the middle of the deck, next to a small boat which was being raised to the ship.

/

"Ranma Saotome, you'll pay for this!" The angry swordsman's yell traveled through the empty metallic room which imprisoned him, echoing several times before disappearing. That foul man had locked him in some kind of prison.

Showing an unexpected inventiveness, Kuno quickly inspected the room, noticing a large metallic cage in one of the corners. "That's perfect."

/-

Several men were attending the strange situation which had come up a few minutes ago. They had found a weird girl, wearing a blue school uniform, who had been found lying in the middle of the sea, holding a large metallic object firmly, even in her unconscious state.

"Hurry up! She has inhaled water!" A man who was helping in the rescue shouted, as the boat got on the deck's level. As more sailors approached the boat, they quickly noticed the object that was held by the girl, a long black sword.

"What is that?" The workers briefly wondered about the weapon, while trying to release the grip of the girl, which was strangely hard for an unconscious person, let alone for a fainted girl who didn't even seem to have hit puberty yet.

"Hey, you! Come help us!" One of the sailors shouted to a young man who was standing near the boat. He looked hesitantly at them, before taking a few steps forward. He was clearly much younger than the sailors, around 16 years old, wearing bright clothes, like a green jacket over a yellow shirt. His hair had a dark blond tone, and the brown root of his hair strands hinted at a bleached hair, definitely, he didn't look like a very responsible person. However, in a situation like that, any help was useful.

"Hold her tightly." The young man crouched, extending his hands to hold the body of the weird girl, who was still lying on the boat. One of the sailors pressed her hand firmly, and quickly moved her fingers away from the hilt of the sword.

Ranma looked at the scene curiously. For once, something weird didn't seem to have anything to do with her. That girl was curious, though the redhead had seen much weirder things during the last year.

As soon as the large man managed to take the sword away from the girl's body, a weird red glow emanated from it. He barely had enough time to examine it, before the rope which held the suspended boat was cut. Ranma instinctively leaped towards the metallic bar of the elevator, holding it with her left hand, and securing he rope with her right hand, holding the boat in its place.

The crowd incredulously looked at the scene unveiling before their eyes, watching feats of speed and strength which they found just unbelievable. The redhead quickly snapped at all that attention she was getting. "Don't stand there all day! Have you forgotten the girl?"

"Ah-ok!" The teen who was holding the weird girl babbled, before raising her body and placing it on the deck. The sailors hastily followed him, stumbling out of the boat. Ranma sighed briefly before releasing the rope, letting the boat fall on the sea.

The boy looked worriedly at the girl's body. It seemed completely immobile, not even a faint movement of her chest. There wasn't much time left. "Hum… CPR… Does anyone know it?" He inquired the crowd, receiving no reply as they talked amongst themselves.

"Damn it!" The teen whispered. He should have paid more attention to those lessons… In any case, he couldn't let that girl just die like that. "Well, here it goes…"

He rubbed his mouth with his hand, slowly approaching the face of the girl, blushing slightly as his lips got closer to hers.

"Tate, NO!" A girl with dark pink hair screamed as she pushed the boy away from the unconscious girl. She seemed to be as old as the one on the floor, 4 large curls of hair moving wildly as she stared angrily at the surprised would-be rescuer. "Your eyes looked indecent!"

"It's no time to say that!" Tate replied, pushing the girl away, freeing himself from the tentacles of her hair. Soon, they had gotten into a stupid round of complaints, ignoring completely the girl on the floor.

Akane watched the situation, trembling as those two clowns seemed to completely forget about the girl. She took a few steps forward, going through the crowd, standing between those two. "SHUT UP!" She yelled, silencing Tate and the _other_ weird girl. "Can anyone actually help!" Akane fumed glaring at those two. Usually, she only got that angry with Ranma, or Kuno, but those two idiots were actually risking someone's life. "Even I'm not that bad, aren't I?" She wondered for a second before another person stepped from the crowd.

It was another girl, this one seemed to be around Akane's own age, sporting an orange hair, and a simple shirt and skirt. Her purple eyes briefly scanned the weird girl as she approached her. For a moment, she froze, her eyes bulging as she seemed lost in her own thoughts. Tate noticed that and quickly got her out of it. "Hurry up!", he said to the girl, breaking the trance.

"Understood", the newcomer tried to hear the girl's breath, but there was nothing. However, she still seemed to be alive. She pressed the stomach of the girl several times, following each one with a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, repeating the process several times.

FLASH!

A bright light filled the deck, as a camera took several pictures of the scene. The orange haired girl started choking, as the unconscious girl threw up water, and started breathing again.

Akane looked at the source of the light but couldn't make out anyone holding a camera. Everything had ended well anyway, though she had a suspicion that she knew the one behind that last incident very well… And… where was Ranma?

"Well, this was a nice start." Nabiki grinned, holding the camera with her right hand, as she quickly went downwards through a nearby stair. She wondered briefly in how to best spin the situation. If any of those girls were known around Fuuka Gakuen, everything would be even better!

/-

"I've got it!" Ranma exclaimed while she held the weird sword underwater. That looked like a fine weapon, and, even though she didn't care much about swords, she couldn't just let it be lost on the seafloor.

She took a quick look at the weapon, while slowly rising upwards. The black metal seemed almost impossibly polished, showing faint reflections of the water around them, it also seemed extremely heavy, almost as if it were pulling her down towards the bottom of the sea. "This sword's weird… is it really that girl's weapon?" Ranma wondered briefly.

Moments before the redhead reached surface, she felt a force pulling down her right arm, the one which was holding the weapon. Quickly examining the sword, her eyes noticed a faint red luminescence coming from it. She tried to hold it with both hands, but, before she could do it, the strange blade quickly turned upwards, rocketing to the clouds.

Ranma barely had time to react before the sword suddenly changed directions yet again as it flew over the ship. She lost her grip on its hilt, falling headfirst on the floor. Several passengers walking around the deck quickly rushed to look at the girl lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. The floor panels around her body were slightly cracked, something that only made the passersby talk amongst themselves more, without anyone actually helping her.

/-

The biker watched the ship moving away from her position silently. She stood at the top of a green hill, close to the path of the boat, watching hopelessly as the distance between them widened. The sun had already disappeared beyond the horizon, and the nocturne sky was greeting the annoyed pursuer.

Things weren't going as planned. She had wasted way too much time with the girl from Nerima, and actually was too tired to fight well against that other one. Her shoulders still hurt from her latest bout against that girl. What was her name? Mikoto?

In any case, it didn't matter anymore. That night was lost, and there was nothing she could do there.

/-

"I see…so while you're transferring, you're using the vacation to travel." Tate said, carrying on a conversation with a younger boy. He seemed to be about as old as the pink haired girl from the early incident, who was sitting beside Tate, close to him, while holding a small smile.

"Yes." The boy nodded affirmatively. He was wearing bright blue clothes, with a shirt covering even his neck. His hair was dark red, with several small strands of hair hanging down on his face, but not out of negligence, his hair seemed rather well combed. "What about you?" The boy inquired, while turning towards the black haired girl who was sitting beside him.

"Hum…It was actually my father's idea…" Akane wondered briefly. "He thought I could take a day to relax before going to a new school." She concluded, while looking at the others.

"What? New school? You two? Don't tell me it is…" Tate's question was interrupted, as a slightly louder voice silenced his own.

"Takumi." A female voice was overheard by those three, who immediately turned towards a circular stair, just behind Tate's couch. Standing there was the one who had saved the weird girl, wearing something which looked quite a bit like a school uniform. A short brown skirt, and a long sleeved orange shirt, matching her hair, on the neck's line there was a red bow. Her short orange hair reached her neck, making the uniform blend rather well with her. "I was looking for you everywhere".

"Sis… that…?" Takumi muttered, somewhat stunned.

"Ah… this?" she gestured to her clothes "I left all my changes in the big suitcase," she replied while walking down the stairs towards the small group.

"So, you're transferring to our school?" said a surprised Tate.

"And you too…?" The pink haired girl pointed to Akane who looked quite confused for a few moments.

"What do you mean?" The youngest Tendo briefly wondered. "Are you from Fuka Gakuen?"

"Yeah, we're students from there as well", Tate smiled at the coincidence.

"Thanks goodness…" Akane sighed relieved. After the attack of that biker, she had thought Fuka Gakuen's students would be a bunch of weird guys or something, but those three seemed fairly normal. Unnoticed by Akane, a shadow slowly covered her body as she was lost in her own thoughts.

"My beautiful Akane, I've finally freed myself from the traps of that devious man!" The large figure standing behind her said as her entire bodies tensed.

"Kuno…" She muttered angrily. Great, and the night was going so well…

Tate's eyes locked on the newcomer, expressing recognition, but he quickly tried to face away from him, but wasn't fast enough.

"Yuuichi? It's been a while…" The Tatewaki extended his hand towards him, but received no reply.

"Do you already know each other, big bro?" The girl sitting at Tate's side questioned them, surprised by the attitude of Tate.

"Huh… yes. Kind of." Tate muttered weakly as Kuno approached him.

"So, how are you going? Are you still training? Not that you could ever become better than me, but, as a future member of Fuka Gakuen's Kendo team, I want my men to be prepared." The older boy briefly wondered, while Tate just looked away from him with disgust, staring at the floor.

"I… I'm not part of the team anymore." Tate managed to mutter, his face darkening while he looked away from the older swordsman.

"I see, such a shame." Kuno muttered, before looking at Akane, who was still annoyed by his presence, though he was clearly oblivious to her feelings. "Well, fair maiden," Tatewaki said "what about a date at this nocturne cruiser?"

"Forget it Kuno!" A shadow quickly cruised through the bright room, suddenly materializing in front of the taller boy in the form of a fit 17 years old wearing a soaked Chinese red shirt.

"Vile Saotome…" Tatewaki glared the newcomer. "This time, I'll put an end to your evil ways!"

"Huh… hey, look, I've got some tea, why don't you drink it a little! I'm sure you'll calm down!" The orange haired girl stood between the two boys who seemed to be ready to start a battle at any moment smiling brightly. She wouldn't let a fight start, not so close to her small brother, Takumi. Besides, she was sure she could help them somehow. Akane just observed the situation curiously.

"Huh…" Ranma looked at the girl curiously. Her expression seemed to bear some resemblance to Kasumi's, but, unlike Kasumi's usually natural gestures, she clearly was forcing a smile, and almost ready to break it. "She might have a point…" Ranma briefly wondered while taking a cup of tea. Kuno also took one, and sit on a nearby couch.

"That was unexpected…" Akane noted as the girl handed cups to the others who were there, and the heated environment quickly cooled down.

/-

"Well, well, well…" A white haired boy walked through a dark room, crates and suitcases spread all over it, grinning silently. "There are several pieces in place… I wonder… Which one will hear this song?"

"Come." He muttered as a small red glowing form emerged at his feet. His bright yellow eyes looked at it patiently, as the red shadow crawled across the room, going through a metallic door.

/-

"Oh, my name is Takumi Tokiha!", the younger boy said as everything settled down "I'll be entering grade one of junior high", he smiled briefly before continuing. "I'm sorry about my sister.

"I'm Tate Yuuichi," The seemingly bleached blond boy raised his hand slightly, easing his face.

"I'm Shiho Munakata! Grade two in junior high!" The pink haired girl exclaimed cheerfully, grabbing Tate with one arm, and making a victory sign with her empty hand.

Ranma quivered quietly while looking at that scene. Somehow, that girl's action reminded him of Shampoo… Hum… "Nah… I must be imagining things…," Added him.

"Oh, so your parents…" The orange haired girl observed with a sympathetic look. They didn't look very much alike, but clearly seemed like a close family.

"Eh? No, not. It's not that." Tate quickly added, pushing the girl away from him.

"That's no way of treating one of your own blood, Yuichi." Kuno commented briefly, looking at the situation.

"That's wrong! We're just childhood friends!" added him with as his eyes enlarged and his face aged several years.

"Huh! You're not siblings!" Mai exclaimed, looking terribly surprised at him.

"NO!" Tate valiantly confirmed.

Akane and Ranma just glared at the small girl with knowing looks. Ranma, particularly, understood perfectly what was happening there, though he certainly didn't like it. "Girls can be so annoying sometimes." He murmured to himself.

"Well, I'm Ranma Saotome, the best martial artist in the world!" Ranma exclaimed, as he quickly somersaulted to beside the couches.

"I'm Akane Tendo!" The black haired girl introduced herself, staring at her fiancé, who was being quite a show-off that day. "That fool is a friend of mine."

"Friend…" A known voice to Akane and Ranma reached the group "Sis, that's no way of treating your fiancé, is it?" Nabiki added sarcastically, as she stood behind her sister.

"Fi-Fiancé!" The entire group had shocked looks, but the orange haired girl was the only one who actually exclaimed loudly. Shortly after, she had a quite amused look in her face. "Wow, so it's true that big city folk are more advanced."

"It's-It's just an arranged marriage!" Akane protested, but her words were unheard, as Kuno leaped back into a fight stance, holding a broken metallic piece as a poorly made sword.

"Saotome, I'll never let you have Akane Tendo!" Kuno shouted loudly, just before noticing that Ranma was nowhere to be seen. "This… this is…"

"I'm here, fool!" Saotome quickly fell from the roof, spinning once, and kicking Kuno's neck, throwing him to the floor, unconscious. "Well, that's solved." Ranma muttered staring at him.

The four newcomers looked at Ranma, all clearly wide eyed, shocked because of the quick battle. "Is-Is he okay?" the older girl wondered.

"Ah, don't worry. We fought almost every day back home." Ranma stated calmly, while holding Kuno's body over his shoulders and taking him towards an exit.

"Huh… ok." The orange haired girl said, one of her eyes half closed, clearly doubting that explanation. "Anyway… I'm Mai Tokiha!" She exclaimed, wearing a happy face again.

"And I'm Nabiki Tendo, this girl's older sister," Nabiki said while pointing at Akane, "See you later…" she resumed while leaving them behind, and going to the outside deck.

"I'll put him somewhere and take some dried up clothes from the luggage, Akane. See ya in a few minutes." The pigtailed martial artist said as he left the room, while the rest of the group continued to chat amongst themselves.

/-

"This might not be so bad, after all." Ranma thought while descending through a dark staircase. "Those two seemed fairly normal; I guess there isn't any strange curse in that Fuka place."

He grabbed a big metallic handle with his hands, pushing it forward and opening the door to the compartment which guarded everyone's luggage. A sailor walked right behind him, holding a flashlight.

There seemed to be hundreds of things down there, it'd take a while to find theirs. After stumbling through smaller objects for several minutes, the sailor was already tapping his foot on the floor while Ranma searched for his clothes. Sound of objects being thrown around by Ranma as he tried to navigate through the room the only sound in that room.

"Why are there so many things scattered around the floor, old man?" Ranma complained to the sailor, who gave no answer. The room became even darker too, frustrating Ranma. Was that guy pulling some kind of joke?

"Hey, I'm talking to-" Ranma was interrupted as, turning towards the man, he couldn't see anything. No answer, no flashlight, no sailor. The disappearance was shortly followed by new sounds of steps through the luggage. Of course, there was one problem. Ranma wasn't walking.

"Great, just great." Ranma muttered as the sound approached him. "Is it you, Kuno? I've already had enough, have you heard me? I'm going to throw you out of this ship!"

Moments passed, and only the sound of steps could be heard. They didn't seem to be approaching, just circling around him. "Ok- So, it isn't Kuno. What is it this time?" he complained to no one in particular. "Do you want a fight? Well, you've just got one!" He shouted loudly before leaping towards the source of the steps.

"What!" For a moment, he thought that the creature in front of him was that one freak called Pantyhose, but that illusion quickly was dispelled. It had a fairly humanoid built, except for the two large arms which ended in pincers, and the bright, insect red eyes. Its whole body seemed to be covered by a layer of rusty metal, though it seemed to be as malleable as human skin, judging by its heavy breathing.

/

"Huh… Fuka Gakuen isn't a suspicious place or anything, is it?" Akane inquired a surprised Tate.

"No, there's nothing like that there." Yuuchi replied, wondering just for a moment from where that question had come.

/

Ranma jumped, kicking the creature's head, which, to his surprise, barely bulged. "Damn it! Another one of those things!" He murmured as the creature tried to pound him with its pincers, swinging them at him, though Ranma dodged them easily enough by taking a short hop, distancing himself from it.

"One hit can't do much…" Saotome planned as the creature rushed towards him, going through the place he was standing as he jumped to the floor. "But hundreds will take you down!" He boasted while rushing in the monster's direction.

"Huh? What does that boy think he is? A knight in shinning armor?" The stranger with yellow eyes watched from the shadows, holding a puzzled look in his young face. Meanwhile, Ranma's right fist connected with the monster, blurring just for a second, as Ranma applied countless strikes upon the same area of the creature's chest to no effect.

Ranma dodged yet another swing of the monster's limbs. His attacks had almost no effect, and it was still going towards him. That was bad. The creature didn't even seem to have hot ki to fuel the Hiryu Shotenha, instead, it exhaled a cold heavy ki, similar to the one Ryoga produced to use the Shi Shi Hokodan… "Wait… this might just work…" Ranma's confidence was suddenly boosted as he figured out a possible weakness of that thing.

He leaped back a few meters, before looking at it again. The monster was running towards him while howling from a non-existent mouth. Apparently, its patience had run out.

"Here it goes!" Ranma shouted as he raised his arms, pointing his hands towards the creature. Minuscule globules of light materialized around his hands, the small spheres running into each other and forming a bigger one. After half of a second, two spheres of light could already be seen shining while being held by him. That was the Moko Takabisha, his confidence, his pride, materialized into a powerful weapon.

"_That_ was unexpected." The young stranger sitting on a pile of torn luggage raised an eyebrow. "He might just ruin the party…"

/-

**Final Notes**

Yes, if you're wondering, that Orphan isn't any of the Orphans from My HiME. However, after this one, I will try to avoid creating any other extra Orphans.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes**

This is actually chapter 3.1… most of the prologue has been changed.

It was supposed to be the second half of the second chapter, but it was getting too big, so I separated it into a chapter of its own, adding a few extra scenes while I was at it.

As said before, I'm changing the ages of the HiME and Ranma cast to make the series fit better. After some consideration, these will be their final ages:

-Ranma, Akane and all the other characters, even though the entire manga has already happened, and a year has passed, still are 16 years old.

-Every 15 years old My HiME character (Including Mai and Tate) is one year older than in the anime. Every other character keeps its original age.

**Akuma-sama- **Initially, I had thought about just adding an extra HiME without any explanation, so the number of real HiMEs would be bigger than in the series. However, now, I've got some ideas which might work… Either way, definitely, every HiME from the anime will still be a HiME in this fic.

There's also a small bonus at the end of the chapter. It has a few symmetry problems, but I didn't want to delay the chapter even more only to fix them.

**Matrias- **Good point about the first scene… Originally, it **was** supposed to be about Tsubasa, but then I decided to use Konatsu… However, I completely forgot to actually change the actions along with the character… Ok, I've rewritten it now.

/-

"Hum…" A strange wooden crate, weirdly placed on the middle of the Tendo's living room, slowly started moving after a quick conversation between and Mr. Saotome. "Ukyo won't like this…"

The strange object crawled towards the outside, going unnoticed by the occupants of the room, who seemed to be fairly entertained while drinking sake.

The object reached the exit door, pushing it open, and making a few quick hops towards the middle of the street. The crate suddenly burst open, wood pieces spattered through the empty dark road. Emerging from the inside was a slender figure, wearing bright red clothes, a matching crimson scarf, and a mask of similar color and style. A long strand of black hair descended from the figure's head, which was otherwise mostly covered by the red cloth. The feminine figure ran in circles for a few seconds, musing. "Miss Ukyo likes Ranma, so I should just tell her about that… however…" The figure stood still, pounding for a few seconds. "I don't want to lie to Miss Ukyo… she's such a kind person, but she's never in peace because of her obsession with Ranma…"

The figure, a strangely feminine ninja named Konatsu, stood around for several seconds, before suddenly clenching his fists. "It's decided. I'll lie to her about this incident… Maybe, if I try hard enough, I'll be able to make her forget about him! A new love will be born out of the darkness of solitude!" The ninja pulled a microphone out of his clothes, and started singing a loud, melancholic and dissonant song, the noise quickly becoming audible to the entire block. The figure continued to sing, oblivious to the angry crowd which quickly gathered around him, prepared to lynch the one singing such horrible song.

**Run, My HiME!**

**Chapter 3- Awakening of the Yellow Princess**

A sudden shockwave spread through the sea vessel, shaking the structure as the lights failed for a brief moment, before quickly turning on again.

Tate looked dizzily at his surroundings. Chairs and tables had been thrown around, small flames had ignited, and several passengers lying on the floor, a few had stayed up by holding onto the staircases. Luckily, he had managed to fall on a surprisingly soft object, and hadn't been hurt. His attention was quickly turned to Akane, who had managed to stay up without any kind of support, and looked angrily at one of the exits, before quickly storming off through it. Yuuichi briefly wondered about that, but his thoughts were interrupted.

"Hey."

"Huh?" Yuuchi looked downwards, a cold feeling running through his stomach.

"PEVERT!" The orange haired girl exploded, while slapping the taller boy away from her.

Tate stumbled through the wreckage, huge eyes staring at the angered girl. "No! It's a mistake!"

"Taking advantage of a girl in such a situation, you're the worst!" Mai lashed out.

"No! It's a mistake!" Yuuchi replied again, his face colored with a burning red.

Other vibrations went through the room, raising the flames, which advanced towards through the hall. Several passengers were awakened by the second one, including Shiho and Takumi, whose heavy eyelids opened with difficulty.

"Hey! We're evacuating the ship!" A well built man wearing a lifejacket screamed at the top of his lungs at the confused people, who had continued inside that room.

"Aah!" Mai glared at Takumi, who had just managed to get up. "Are you ok? Have you gotten your medicine?"

"What?" The redhead child worriedly looked at his sis, "I've forgotten it in our room!".

"Yuuichi, can you take Takumi with you?" Mai suddenly turned towards her new acquaintance with pleading eyes.

"O-Ok!" Tate nodded. Turning towards the younger pair, he shouted "Come!" Meanwhile, Mai rushed upstairs, her eyes trembling while taking a last look at her younger brother.

Tate's eyes briefly rested upon the young boy, he didn't look sick or anything. Was it really something serious, or was that girl just overreacting?

/-

Ranma glared at the beast advancing yet again towards him with its heavy but fast march. "Mokou Takabisha!" He yelled, as two other light globes formed on his hands, and traveled towards the beast. They connected with the creature, pushing it away from Ranma, but red eyes monster ignored the pain and resumed his march.

"This isn't good…" The martial artist muttered, "I can't produce enough energy to stop it…" The beast swung its claws, but Ranma swiftly hopped over them. "With each failed attack, the Mokou Takabisha becomes weaker… I'll have to try a different approach!"

He somersaulted back through the entire room, landing on the opposite side of the monster. Quickly skimming through it, he could make out several pillars still standing. Most of them had been destroyed, but the few remaining ones should be enough.

"Let's see how you like this!" Confidence reborn, he jumped towards a pillar, quickly spinning, and using the pillar as support to press his legs and jump towards another one, repeating the process several times, while the creature could only look confusedly at his opponent. Quickly, he had vanished into a simple motion blur ricocheting through the room.

The monster's flaming eyes tried to follow his movements, but failed to do so. As frustration grew inside the creature, a purple aura appeared around its body.

"Now!" Ranma shouted while pressing his feet against a pillar, the impact shattering it, but not before sending Ranma in yet another jump, that time, directed towards the monster. In less than a second, Ranma spun in mid air, and kicked the monster's chest with all his strength and the added power of his increased speed. The result was a powerful attack which sent the thing flying through the room, crashing into a wall. The impact of the large creature weakened the structure around it, as the entire ship trembled, and the ceiling and walls around it fell apart, burying the beast in a pile of rubble.

"Well, as expected, I've won." Ranma proclaimed his victory, smiling as the pieces of floor and furniture sit on top of the monster, burying it.

"Ranma!" The angry Tendo stormed through the stairs, staring at the destroyed room. "Just… What happened down here?"

"A dumb monster appeared…" Ranma said, while looking at the arrival, "but I've already defeated it, as expected," he added proudly while raising his right hand and pointing towards the wreckage in the other room, which could be seen through the hole in the wall opened previously.

Akane's anger was substituted by curiosity. "Are you actually serious?" She looked at the fallen debris, approaching it with caution. To almost anyone else in that ship, that story would surely be a lie, but Akane was used to weird things…

"Yes, but he's finished off now!" Ranma exclaimed, placing his foot on top of the wreckage.

Akane shrieked as an ethereal grunt was reverberated through the room. Pieces of debris were thrown to the sides, as the monster, showing an unexpected speed, quickly rushed through the objects, slamming Ranma against a nearby wall with a single hit of its claws. Akane's heart beat quickly, as the large humanoid creature turned its head, glaring at the newcomer.

With each step that the monster took towards her, Akane's heart trembled, though her face remained unchanged, challengingly looking back at the monster. However, before she could react to the strange creature, Ranma passed by the monster like a blur, punching its head, which was turned slightly by the impact's power, the martial artist suddenly came to a halt, stopping next to his fiancée.

"Ra-Ranma, are you okay?" Akane worriedly asked, as Ranma seemed to lose his footing for a second.

"I don't need your help, tomboy!" He answered, before extending his hands for yet another Moko Takabisha.

"That's it? I'm worried about you and that's everything you say?" Akane snapped, "Do you want to fight that so much? Well, do it alone!" She snorted, glaring at him, an aura of anger around her body.

"You'd just get in the way..." Ranma noted, while looking at the angry girl standing beside him. "Now, take this, stupid monster!" He prepared to attack again, two small orbs of light forming on his hands.

"Moko Takabisha!" The spheres traveled towards the beast, but the monster fluidly moved its claws, dissipating them with a touch. Saotome's hands trembled for a second. A burst of energy coming from the back of the creature's legs impelled it through the room, surprising Ranma, who didn't react as the thing ran into him, bashing the martial artist with its claws, and throwing him at another wall with a surprisingly speed. Upon shock with the structure, it failed, several pieces falling, as a small circular hole, revealing the sea, several meters below, was created.

A drop of blood slipped from Ranma's mouth as he tried to hold onto the cracked wall to rise, and stand up again. The beast's vision focused on its hurt prey, holding an ominous dark smile, the burst of red energy around its legs starting to form again.

"I'm won't lose here…" Ranma managed to say while gathering his remaining power. He didn't have any real options left, but he wouldn't give up so easily.

Akane stared worriedly at the scene. Was that thing actually going to kill him? She had said those things a moment ago… but, she didn't want to see him dead. Not now. She… She liked him.

The creature put its claws together, opening them as it prepared yet another rushing attack. At his side, Ranma had managed to raise his body, placing his arms in a defensive position, expecting the creature's attack, while slowly approaching it.

Akane took a step towards the action, but stopped for a second. What could she do, really? She didn't want to say it, but she knew that she was weak… no, pathetically weak, compared to Ranma. It'd just make everything worse, right?

Ranma stood, waiting for the attack, and ready to flip over the monster as soon as it used that attack again. The stupid thing would be thrown out of the boat, and, hopefully, drown in those waters. Yes, he'd win. Everything would be alright after that. "So much for a vacation…" he whispered, before the thing's eyes lighted up. Unexpectedly, the monster didn't move out of its position.

A dark sphere appeared in front of the thing, and in an instant rocketed towards Ranma, he could do nothing as the projectile hit him, and smashed him against yet another part of the room's wall. The whole structure of the ship seemed to weaken, every wall starting to tremble from the shockwaves created by the impact.

Akane's heart beat quickly. Ranma was lying on the floor, still conscious, but immobile as the creature slowly walked in his direction. Each step producing a loud metallic sound as the large feet of the thing impacted it. It raised its right claw, pointing at the fallen enemy.

Ranma was lying down, facing the approaching creature. He tried to pull his body through the destroyed wall, but it didn't seem to obey his commands, as he remained frozen among the rubbles created by the destruction of that part of the wall, a soft breeze blowing through the hole. "If only I could get through this hole…" He muttered silently, as the monster continued its march towards him.

/

The weird black haired girl from the early incident was lying on an improvised infirmary bed. He wet blue school uniform had been replaced by a large green shirt, which she was wearing as a baggy dress. The room was completely silent, oblivious to the calamity in the exterior.

The eyelids of the girl opened, revealing bright yellow eyes. She slowly raised her chest, sitting on the bed. Her head turned several times, observing her surroundings to identify that place, but it seemed completely unfamiliar. "Enemy…?" She looked around her, that woman from earlier didn't seem to be around, but she could still feel it. Under... There was a battle going in a lower floor. She could feel the impact of the blows, the sound of a monster's feet impacting the weird structure.

The girl's hair was rather unruly, small spikes in every direction, only two pigtails, each one in front of an ear showed any care. The girl looked at a window from where the sea could be seen, and whispered small word with a serious, strong tone. "Miroku."

The window suddenly was destroyed, small pieces of glass flying everywhere, and breaking in even smaller pieces as they ran into solid objects. Going through it, there was a black, thin metallic object, still visibly wet. The weapon seemed disproportionably large for the girl, but her raised arm held it without problems. Suddenly, she jumped from the bed, kicking the room's door open, and running into a corridor.

"Wah!" Mai Tokiha shouted, as she was throw to the side of the corridor, after bumping into someone very quickly. Rapidly looking at the culprit, she saw the weird girl she had saved earlier that day going through the corridor while holding a big sword as if it were a toy, "that was… that was…" Mai's eyes bulged as the information went through her brain. "What is happening?" She frustratingly yelled.

An uncomfortable silence followed. She checked a small white wallet that she had gotten on her room, making sure that the medicine was there and breathed deeply, immediately rushing towards the path the weird girl had taken.

/-

The creature stopped, slowly opening its right claw. It wouldn't let the prey escape. Ranma continued to force himself to crawl through the hole. He wouldn't die there. He couldn't die in such a random way. The light around the creature's claw became even fainter, darkening as a sphere of shadows slowly materialized in the interior of the creature's limb.

/-

"_I'm Ranma Saotome… Sorry about this."_

"_H-Hey, Akane. I'm home!"_

"_I-I get it… Sorry I bothered you… Goodbye, Akane…"_

"_I'm so happy that after tomorrow I'll never have to see your face again, Akane!" _

"_Please, Akane, I need you… to hear me now… I wanted to tell you… I wanted to tell you…that… I LOVE YOU… AKANEEE!"_

/

Ranma's head went through the hole, while a bright aura started flowing around his body. He opened the palm of his hands, while facing the floor with them. The shadows inside the creature's claws were solidified into a large cylinder, projecting itself from the monster's appendage, and flying through the air, towards its target.

"Ranma!" Akane's voice echoed through his ears, as she blurred to between blast's path and him, placing her arms together to block the incoming attack.

"What are you doing?" Ranma shouted desperately, while watching his fiancée stand there, in the projectile's path.

The looming shadow crawling through the air hit Akane, getting divided and tossed into four opposite directions, as two glowing spheres of light appeared on her hands. The yellow orbs quickly consumed her arm up to her elbows, while the projectile continued to be deflected. The bright red eyes of the attacking creature shone with recognition.

The projectile, upon contact with the girl's arm, was ripped into four smaller ones, going in perpendicular directions, two towards the floor and two to the ceiling. However, unlike the main projectile, the smaller ones seemed fairly inoffensive, hitting the room without doing any visible damage.

The flow of dark energy continued, as the lights in Akane's hands vanished. In their place, there were two huge golden gloves, covering from her fists to the elbows. They were disproportionably big, easily making her hands at least four times bigger than they were supposed to be.

"Take this!" Akane shouted, as she moved back one hand, and quickly used it to punch the energy, sending a wave of shadows back to the strange monster. It barely had time to blink, before getting thrown through the opposite wall, into another room.

"What is this thing?" The youngest Tendo wondered about the golden weapons stuck on her hands while looking at them. There were lines forming intricate patterns over the two golden gloves, but the only form which she could identify was a strange object, which seemed to be a perfectly circular eye surrounded by the silhouette of a sun.

"Where did you find that?" Ranma asked, as he slowly got up while holding onto the broken wall.

"I don't know…" Akane replied uncharacteristically quietly.

"Well, well, well… Good moves there." A small white haired boy said while holding an amused smile. He was wearing a simple school uniform, black pants and a white t-shirt, while sitting on top of a pile of luggage which had formed during the battle.

"Who are you?" Ranma inquired, glaring as the stranger, who somehow that managed to stay unnoticed up to that point.

"Wrong question. The right one is, Ranma, who is -that- girl?" The boy with golden eyes said, while pointing to Akane.

"What do you think you're-" Ranma snorted, but stopped abruptly as the pain of his wounds got to him, having to stop and hold his hurt arm.

"Well, it seems that our other guests have arrived..." The white haired kid continued, as a shadow quickly descended the stairs, followed by Mai, who stopped, and breathed heavily, just after getting through the entrance.

"You… what happened here…?" The orange haired girl wondered, while looking at Ranma, Akane and the destroyed compartment.

"This was… huh…" Akane's sweating face betrayed her smile, while she thought about an explanation, which wouldn't be said, as a monstrous growl interrupted her. The creature jumped again to that room, stopping Mai's heart stopped for a second, as she stared at the rust covered creature.

"That… That…" The older Tokiha babbled incoherently, as the small girl brandished her sword, using it to make a circular motion on the floor, before jumping towards the creature, which parried the blow with its claws, sending her a few meters back.

"You are HiMEs…" The kid said, grinning while the girl and the monster exchanged more blows. "You have the ability to materialize photons in the form of powerful weapons."

"What?" Akane emptily exclaimed.

"Those two weapons that you wield, they're Elements, proof that you're a HiME," The white haired stranger continued "And that monster is an Orphan, a creature of another dimension created by negative emotions."

Mai remained with bulged eyes though the entire situation, watching events like which she hadn't expected even in her strangest dreams.

"So, I have to fight that thing?" Akane asked, as the small girl continued her battle, spinning on the hair while holding her sword, and cutting the right claw of the monster, which fell numbly on the floor, quickly turning into dust.

"Bingo! You learn quickly, Akane!" The weird kid said, one eye closed, and imitating a gun with his left hand.

"This is a mistake…" Mai murmured while watching the unbelievable battle, going on in front of her… "Yes, a mistake!" She said, holding a huge smile. She got up, turning towards the stairs and climbing them, while repeatedly telling herself "it's just a mistake!"

/-

"Argh!" The two teens yelled, as they bumped on each other in the middle of a corridor.

"Mai?" Tate exclaimed, while looking at the girl who was sitting on the floor. "Why did you take so long? Your brother was worried, so I came back to find you." Tate curiously wondered, while examining the girl, who seemed rather pale, compared to before.

"No! No! No! No! No!" The girl repeated several times, while throwing repeated awkward punches on the taller teen.

"Hey! Stop" Tate futility tried to defend himself but to no avail as the flurry of punches continued.

/-

"Hey! Can I get one of those?" Ranma wondered, looking at another slash of the weird girl's black sword.

"No, no, no. Only the pure maidens chosen by destiny have the power of the elements." The boy replied while holding his characteristic grin. "You'll have to stand in the sidelines and sit like a good little boy..."

"No chance, brat." Ranma snorted at the golden eyed boy, immediately rushing towards him.

Meanwhile, Akane rushed towards the monster, which was stumbling, barely able to block the slashes of the little girl with a single claw. It didn't even notice the other one approaching it, nor the huge golden fist direct to its stomach. Upon contact, the creature remained immobile for a few moments, turning into sand as soon as Akane moved her fist away from it. "That was easy." She said, smiling.

"See you later, princesses." With that, the weird boy jumped from the pile of objects into a dark part of the room. Ranma quickly tried to follow him, jumping through the pile of objects, however, after landing; he noticed that the kid seemed to be nowhere.

"Who are you?" Akane asked the weird girl, who, after the slave's death, had just been standing around, looking curiously at the two others in that room.

"Mikoto!" She shouted, just before starting to jump around, rushing through the stairs. The two remaining teens stared at the weird girl as she quickly disappeared from sight.

"How do I make these things disappear?" Akane briefly wondered, while staring at the huge gloves around her arms.

/-

"What was that all about?" Tate inquired, while walking towards the hall's exit, Mai going right behind him.

"OK, now, we're even!" The girl amusedly said.

"What are you talking about!" Tate confusedly asked, still trying to understand what he had missed.

"Your perverted hand!"

"That was a mistake!" Tate insisted while silently sulking. Why did no girl ever believe him?

They had reached the deck, standing next to the lifeboats, which were being pulled back to the ship. The emergency lights weren't on, and the noise created by the crowd standing around the deck seemed much calmer than before. They were stunned by the new development for a few seconds, before deciding to ask about it. "Hey, what just happened?" Tate wondered, asking a group of sailors who were resting next to another group, which was busy pulling ropes to lift up the lifeboats to the deck.

"We've just received new orders from the captain. The main structure of the ship doesn't seem to have any problems, so we'll continue on our way to the port, but stopping earlier than scheduled." The large man answered, while whipping off the seat of his face with a white handkerchief.

"Are-Are you sure we'll even reach land like this?" Tate worriedly asked.

"Well, the captain thinks so." Another man answered casually.

"I just hope Takumi is okay." Mai sighed deeply, before heading to check the various lifeboats to search for Takumi.

/-

A few hours later, the ship had docked on a port, part of its shell destroyed, and the travel coming to an end before expected. Various groups stood around the port, talking amongst themselves, deciding what they'd do until the morning. The port itself seemed a fairly pleasant place, well lit, and several guards standing in various places, guarding it. In fact, a few people seemed to have decided to sleep right there while waiting for the next day.

Nabiki was laughing at Ranma and Akane, whose gloves had vanished. "So, after the incident, by some miracle, the ship still managed to arrive on the port, more or less intact." Nabiki amusedly said while looking at a seemingly angry and battered Ranma, and an enthusiastic Akane. "I guess that's an improvement for you, Ranma!" She remarked. A monster? How could she have missed that one? "And Akane got a nifty glove? I wonder how much time it'll last compared to the last magical item you two found."

"Very funny, Nabiki," Ranma cut the amused words of the older Tendo. "I've had a bad night, and there's still school in a few hours…" Saotome lied down on the floor, resting his head on his arm, and closing his eyes. "Don't bother me, okay?"

"What's up with him?" Akane noticed Ranma's uncharacteristic bad temper, completely missing its cause.

"Hurt pride." Nabiki grinned yet again. She wondered how long it'd take for Ranma to challenge Akane after that night.

/-

The morning had finally arrived, and only one hour remained before the classes started. Compared to the mornings in Nerima, things seemed to be much calmer, the various activities carried on by hundreds of students hardly making anything beyond an armless background noise. Of course, the lack of visible confusion didn't exactly mean "peace".

"Whoever designed this uniform was a pervert!" Akane fumed, glaring at her reflection on the mirror. Furikan's uniforms were rather ridiculous, and more like something a 5 year old would wear, but that new thing… Did it really need such a short skirt? Akane was wearing a uniform similar to the one Mai had worn during the ship travel, an orange long sleeved shirt and a short brown skirt. She left the dressing room, quickly stumbling upon Ranma.

"Aren't those supposed to be summer clothes?" She inquired while looking at his uniform. Brown pants and an orange sleeveless jacked, with a white shirt underneath it.

"I don't care. The other one was likely to be torn to shreds as soon as I got into a battle." Ranma answered, while taking a quick look at his fiancée. He wouldn't say it out loud, but she was kind of cute in that uniform. "Besides, I'm still not over that thing you got last night. I didn't need your help back then, and I'll show you that whatever that is, you can't beat me with it!"

"Can't stand being in second place, heh?" Akane remarked, a visible grin drawn on her face.

"That has nothing to do with this! And I'm not in second place." Ranma turned away from her, walking out of the building and going towards a large open road, where many other students could be seen.

"Are you already fighting again?" Nabiki noted, standing in the way of the two clashing teens.

"Where were you?" Akane asked, but her sister showed no signs of actually paying attention to that question.

"Anyway, if everything goes well, I should be making lots of money from this place. So, a small gift can't hurt, right?"

"Gift?" Ranma gulped.

"Don't worry, dear. It's just a picture." The older Tendo noted, raising her left hand to show a small camera.

"Is it really for free?" Akane insisted.

"Of course. Now, could you please stand just so I can take it?"

Ranma and Akane exchanged glances uncertainly. "Ok, Nabiki, go on." Ranma stated, while walking to Akane's side, standing just behind her.

Nabiki aimed the lens of the small machine at them, and pressed a button. A bright flash quickly followed as the picture was recorded by the camera's systems, showing up in a small screen.

/


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes**

After the three introductory chapters, this is the real start. It's the first chapter which, for the most part (excluding the prologue), takes place in Fuka Gakuen.

It took a long time for this chapter to come out, didn't it? Anyway, from now on, updates should be more frequent, though not too frequent anyway.

/-

"Jusenkyo, it's been a while…," A young man muttered while looking at the familiar cursed springs. The waters had finally calmed down after the incident from several months ago, returning to their original springs, each one marked by bamboo poles spread around the terrain. The air was heavy, and a heavy fog made looking far away a useless activity.

His emerald eyes scanned the place, actively seeking for a figure which seemed to be unexpectedly missing. The slender, but fit, man walked along the muddy terrain, cautiously avoiding any of the several pounds surrounding him. He wore green pants and a shirt made of green scales, along with wrist protectors of the same material.

Previously, he had attacked the guide of those lands, and already was expecting a bad welcome, but… the guide actually disappearing? That was strange. The young man examined his surrounding, cautiously looking for the old man. His vengeance, his life… everything was relying on that.

The teenager stumbled around the mud slowly. After several minutes of searching, the only thing he could hear were his steps through the dirty ground. He sighted and sit on the ground, resting for several seconds, tapping his fingers on the mud repeatedly. "Where's the stupid old man?" He shouted angrily to no one, but, unexpectedly, heard an answer.

As if replying to his yell, he could clearly hear many footsteps. The sound of many people wearing heavy clothes and moving through the muddy terrain was as clear as the sun. "So, you've finally decided to appear…"

As the multiple strangers approached him, their shape became clear, even through the thick fog. Several armed men, wearing full body bullet proof vests, complete with helmets which hid most of their faces with a darkened glass. Each one carried a machinegun, aiming at the figure surrounded by their forces. "Hands up, Identify yourself!" One of the unknown men shouted.

The surrounded teenager, who called himself Taro, raised his head, smiling. "And… if I say no?" Taro grinned, his eyes exulting confidence.

The guards opened fire at the boy, streaks of light crossing the air with no success, as the boy quickly jumped several meters into the air, leaving the guards speechless. Before they even had time to understand the situation, Taro descended through the fog, kicking the head of one of the guards, and easily smashing his helmet as the man fell on the ground.

Upon watching the first one fall after being hit by a seemingly inhuman force, the others started moving away from the area hurriedly, stumbling through the swamp around the springs. The hunters had become prays. Quickly, they started falling, either by entering into springs and turning into inoffensive animals, like frogs and pigs, or getting taken out by single blows of the teenager, whose kicks and punches ignored all their training and equipment, knocking them out like little kids. In less than ten seconds, only one human remained standing.

"Honored guest has saved my life!" A fat man wearing rather bland, almost militaristic even, green clothes, including a long sleeved t-shirt and a cap, ran out of the fog, quickly hugging Taro tightly. "You're a great person, I'm very grateful!" The goofy old man released his tight grip, bowing politely to the stranger.

"Huh… I've not saved you…" Taro said curiously, puzzled at the reaction of the guide. The fat man looked at the face of the stranger again, recognition finally hitting him. His legs trembled as took a few steps backwards, before the stranger placed his hands on the guide's collar, holding him in place, and glaring sternly. "Stop playing dumb! I've seen with my own eyes a curse stronger than my own…" Taro's stern glare quickly turned into an angry one as he started yelling at the trembling guide. "Spit it out, old man! Where is the spring with the strongest drowned creature? Where's the strongest curse? Where's it? Tell me!"

**Run, My HiME!**

**Chapter 4- Dancing Flame**

"Ranma… Can't you stop being such a show off?" Akane yelled furiously at the teen that was jumping through trees of the vegetation which surrounded Fuka Gakuen's entrance. Several nearby students looked startled as the boy easily ran through the tree's branches, never missing a single one.

"It's not my fault you're just a clumsy tomboy." He answered back, while landing in yet another tree, Akane following just behind him, running through the grass.

"Come down!" The youngest Tendo shouted again. Ranma finally decided to hear her, and moved away from the branches, swiftly landing on the ground.

"What is your problem?" Saotome asked.

"See, Ranma, we're in a new school. No one knows us here, and I wouldn't like to become the center of a school circus yet again. So, could you please do your contribution and stop trying to get everyone's attention all the time?" Akane gave him an annoyed glance, while Ranma just nodded silently.

"If you say so…" Ranma replied, looking at the grass. While both continued walking towards the school, he mumbled incoherently, while avoiding Akane's face, "Stupid tomboy…"

Soon, their new school came into view. Unlike Furinkan, which, for all its weirdness, actually had an extremely conventional external architecture, the school building which was standing in front of their path had its own design, a very different one from the conventional Japanese high schools.

Instead of a single large gray building, there were three basic structures. Two simple white buildings separated by a large entrance hall. The entrance was surrounded by trees, cut in such a way to form several green cones. The front walls of the middle structure were almost made of several large glass windows, forming a large transparent cylinder, with an entrance, a large doorway, in the center. The ceiling had a half-spherical shape, and also was made of glass, just like the walls. Standing behind the transparent structure, there was a smaller building, colored with a light brown tint. Certainly, it was a much more pleasant view than standard schools.

/-

"Hey, sis, isn't that Yuuichi?" Takumi waived to the older teen who answered with a gesture of his own. Tate was wearing a standard winter uniform, but its jacket was open, revealing a green shirt, which definitely wasn't part of the uniform. Takumi wore a blue uniform, much simpler looking than the one of High-school. However, quickly Tate turned his head away, ignoring the two Tokihas.

"What's up with him?" Takumi briefly wondered, as he and his sister approached the school's entrance.

"He's just some vulgar person." Mai replied in a teasingly tone. "Vulgar, pervert, stupid…"

"I'm none of those things!" Tate yelled loudly, while rushing towards Mai, instantly bridging the distance between them.

"See, that's how you call people like him." Mai joked to her brother, Tate's eyebrow twitching.

"By the way, what happened to her? The girl you picked up in the boat…" The older male wondered briefly, looking away from Mai.

"Ah…" She sweated slightly. That question brought her bad memories of the previous night. "She's in the health center, but, according to the doctor, she's just sleeping heavily."

"Takumi, Tate, Mai!" Akane quickly caught up with them, Ranma slowly following behind. The group already was inside the building, walking along a corridor.

"Hey, Akane!" Takumi greeted his new acquaintance.

"That person…" Mai silently wondered. That girl… She was standing in that room last night, wielding those huge metallic fists… "What was really happening?" The orange haired teen silently wondered.

"Where were you during that confusion last night, huh?" Tate asked, pointing to their faces.

"Huh… That was… " Akane looked at her fingers, waving them repeatedly as she uselessly tried to come up with an excuse.

"We were figh-" Ranma tried to answer, but suddenly Akane's hand covered his mouth, holding it while she weakly smiled. "We were **fi**nally sleeping! That's it!" Mai's eyes narrowed after that weird exchange. Definitely, something had happened last night in the ferry.

"What a bad lie…" Tate sighed, easily seeing through those words, though he didn't dare to guess what they were hiding. He suddenly raised his hand, pointing his finger at the rest of the group. "From this day on, I won't interact with any of you! If you're going to risk your lives and do such weird things, do it by yourselves!"

"Coward." Ranma said, a grin drawn on his face.

"Shut up!" Tate yelled while walking away from the group.

/

A few minutes later, Tate, sitting on a chair, and resting his head with one hand, stared at the newcomers. "Why did I open my mouth?"

"I'm Mai Tokiha!" She introduced herself, bowing to the class. Ranma and Akane stood beside her. Saotome quickly skimmed through the students, trying to identify someone known, but to no avail.

"This will be boring…" Ranma muttered silently.

In a hill close to the school, a small, but dense, forest quickly filled the view. In the midst of those woods, a feminine form in biker clothes stood by the side of her vehicle, her eyes, hidden by the reflexive glass of her helmet, glaring at the physical structure of the school.

/-

The class went on as usual, without any crazy teachers or a martial artist breaking through the roof during the explanation, but Ranma was slightly unnerved as a girl with short black hair and oval glasses kept a constant look on him. He didn't examine her too intently, but it was obvious that those eyes weren't from someone in love or attracted to him, but, rather, someone examining him like a product.

"Hey, Akane, you don't want to be on the stage, right? So, let's get out now." Ranma said just as the bell rung indicating the end of that class.

"Huh? Ok…" The Tendou replied, oblivious to the glances from the other girl. Ranma held Akane's arm, and forced her to quickly walk away from class. She directed an angry glare during a brief instant, but let it go as they stood alone in a corridor.

"What was that all about?" Akane asked Ranma, puzzled by his hurriedness.

"There was this one girl examining us through class. She didn't seem to pay attention to that other new girl either. Didn't you say you want to avoid a circus?"

Akane silently pondered his words for a while, before answering. "You're right, thanks Ranma."

"Hey, by the way, what happened to that toy of yours?" Ranma inquired, looking curiously at her hands.

"That wasn't a toy." Akane answered, her eyes closed. Why did he always need to tease her?

"…I can just summon it at anytime, it won't appear out of nowhere unexpectedly, unlike your curse."

"So… Hm… what do you think about a little spar session after class?" Ranma said, avoiding eye contact with her.

"Sparring? With those things, I'll crush you!" Akane had a big smile on her face, looking confidently at Ranma. Was he finally recognizing her? She didn't know why she had gotten those things, but it didn't really matter.

"Alright, see you later!" Ranma turned his back to her, heading towards a door.

"Where are you going?" Inquired Akane.

"I'll take a look at the surroundings of this place. Don't worry, I'll be back before next class!"

"Alright… I need to get to know the students from class anyway." The younger Tendo sighed, going back towards class hoping some people still were hanging there.

/

It was lunch time, so the empty tables of the cafeteria were unusually filled with students, both new and old, catching up with the news of the day.

"There have been several news in the last few days, but the most interesting surely is Ranma Saotome transferring to this place!" Chie, the girl who was analyzing Ranma earlier exclaimed, while Mai looked at her curiously.

"What is so interesting about him?" Tokiha inquired curiously.

"I've been checking his background ever since I head about his coming to this place. It seems he has traveled through all kinds of places, and has always gotten involved into school fights, cross-dressing and even theft. I really don't know how he got accepted, but he'll make this place more interesting! Didn't you see the damage in the ferry's lower rooms?"

"I was in that ship." Mai answered slightly amused by the interest of the other girl. "But I don't think he had anything to do with him…" She muttered while silently reminiscing her visage at the end of that night. "A monster, a sword, a golden glove… HiMEs…"

"Heh… would you know something?" Chie's face got dangerously close to Mai, who quickly bended backwards.

"Huh… no, of course, not!" she said embarrassedly.

The inquirer adjusted her glasses, laying back on her chair. It was obvious she wouldn't be getting much info from Mai… Quickly, she switched her focus to another girl who had just appeared from the hall. "Hey, you're Akane Tendo, right? Could you answer some questions?"

"Huh- Of course." Akane slowly approached the table, carefully observing Chie.

/

A loud yell echoed through the halls of Fuka Gakuen's Kendo dojo as several swordsman fly into the walls.

"Pathetic." Kuno murmured while looking at his defeated opponents. "In order to reach new heights, this place definitely needs a capable leader, me, the great Kuno!" He said while raising his sword towards the roof.

"You aren't our captain…" One of the fighters weakly said as he tried to get up, but couldn't mutter enough strength to do so.

"If Takeda were here…" Another one said, grasping onto the wall to lift his body.

"You attack mere students while fighting with your full strength, and you consider yourself a capable leader? I, Captain Takeda, will defeat you, Tatewaki Kuno!" A young man with spiked hair wearing dark blue traditional kendo garb appeared as if out of nowhere, challenging Kuno for a battle

"You…?" Kuno was taken by surprise for a few moments, but quickly opened an ominous smile. "If Yuuichi was the best you've produced, I won't even have to put any effort into this, commoner!"

"Damn you…!" Takeda angrily rushed towards Kuno, clashing their swords while struggling to keep his footing.

/-

"And everything was going so well… Stupid curse…" A small redhead wearing a baggy male uniform glared at a broken pipe, next to one of the entrances to the main building of the complex.

"I wonder if it'll be possible to get to the bathroom without causing any commotion…?" Ranma puzzled as he quickened his pace while walking through the school's corridors. A few students walking or only hanging there gave her some odd glances, but it didn't seem to have become any kind of commotion. Soon, the bathroom's door came into view.

"Alright! I've done it!" He proudly proclaimed, hoping this large school would have some hot water in there.

"What do you think you're doing?" A loud voice stopped Ranma completely in her tracks.

"What?"

A fuming girl with long blond hair, wearing a slightly different female uniform, with a green jacket, menacingly looked at the smaller Ranma, her anger almost visible through her skin.

"Wha-What…?" Momentarily surprised, the redhead could only mutter a few incoherent words.

/

As the sounds of a battle still echoed through the dojo, a shadowy figure walked outside. It stealthily circled through the bushes next to the buildings without making any sounds until its large eyes focuses on a small package which had been left outside by one of the students.

"Food!" The small formed jumped with joy grabbing and ripping it open, slamming the entire red bread on its mouth.

"WWAAAAHH" The loud fierce yell shacked the land and sky, abruptly putting an end to sounds of battle.

"What was that?" A bruised and battered Takeda rushed to outside along with Kuno, who didn't seem to carry a single wound. They stood beside two other students, starting at a nearby bush. A shadowy form seemed to move in random patterns behind them. Kuno lifted his wooden sword, as if in defiance to the creature.

"Come forth, vile monster" He yelled, and soon got his wish, as the shadowy form with red eyes and breath of smoke leaped from the bushes jumping right onto Takeda, who was immediately knocked out. The form then proceeded to rush through trees, heading towards the school's main building. Kuno just grinned. "Obviously, this happened due to my presence, for this is a call of my heroic destiny which shall start today in this noble place!"

"Wait, demon!" The kendo champion yelled as he rushed through the forest running in a surprisingly quick pace after it.

/-

"Walking in the grounds of this Academy wearing a vile parody of our uniform with no shame! Destroying your own improper garment by drenching it! Soaking the clean, beautiful and important corridor's floor! Trying to avoid school's authority, infecting the students' innocent eyes, senses and morals! Inscribing fake information into our database! Acting against everything that this institution stands for! Ranma Saotome, what do you have to say for yourself?" The angry girl from earlier was still going on and on while Ranma gazed at the outside, mostly ignoring her tirade while sitting on a chair.

"So, can I get out now?" The redhead asked showing a complete disinterest in her words.

"THERE'S NO WAY YOU WILL WALK OUT OF THIS ROOM WEARING THAT!"

"Now, now, Haruka, let's take a tea drink and calm down." A man that was standing behind Haruka said, calmly looking at the raging girl while placing a cup of tea on a table next to Ranma. He had short black hair and was wearing a similarly colored uniform, and, like Ranma, seemed to completely ignore the girl's tirade. "Ranma, drink one too."

"Huh… thanks." Ranma said while holding the cup, quickly facing away from the stranger and starting to examine the cup, pounding if she should just drop it on herself and put an end to that. It didn't seem too hot, but should be enough to trigger the transformation. Of course, there was also the promise made to Akane earlier to consider. No circus. "Right, like there was a way I could avoid that…" She silently added.

"Ok, I'm done with this!" Ranma suddenly snapped, getting up. The male student took a step back from her in surprise, while Haruka continued looking at her menacingly. The pigtailed girl made a sudden movement with her arm, throwing the tea onto her own face.

"Alright, do you understand now"? Ranma said, grinning while waiting for the perplexed reactions of the couple. "Huh…?" The still redhead martial artist looked at her own body, noticing that she still was a girl. "It wasn't hot enough…" she murmured under her own breath.

"Let's calm down, Miss Saotome." The older teen said that while looking at the drenched girl with a surprising composed attitude, he noticed the visibly slightly twist of eyebrows of the redhead upon hearing the words "Miss Saotome". "Hm… would just Ranma be better?"

"You could say so…" An annoyed Ranma grumbled. How long did they plan on keeping him there?

"I'm the vice-president of the student council…"

"Reito! You may be the vice-president, but don't interfere right now!" Haruka protested while pushing away the taller student. "It's our job as executives to keep the peace and order of the campus!" She stopped briefly, only to focus on Ranma and continue her tirade. "And you, problematic girl, you won't get out of this place until you agree to wear a proper uniform!"

"Suzushiro, it's our job as executives to keep peace and order on this campus, isn't it?" A calm voice in a tone similar to Reito's entered in the conversation. The source was another girl, this one wearing a light brown uniform and a darker blond hair, but sporting a much calmer face. While hearing those words, Haruka's fierce eyes seemed to lose their strength as she looked halfway towards the floor.

"Yes, that is correct, president Fujino." The executive sighted.

"Then isn't it better to give her a chance and let her enjoy this place, rather than to instill fear on her?" The president continued between drinks of tea.

"Now, Ranma…" Chizuru Fujino continued, "would you please collaborate with us and wear the girl's uniform this time?"

"That didn't help anything…" The readhead sighed. She should just have jumped through one of the windows while the crazy girl was still yelling.

/-

"Your path of destruction has come to an end!" Kuno raised his sword, pointing it to the strange form, which had seemingly stopped its insane rush, trying futility to hide itself behind a three.

The form didn't move nor answered his call, provoking the swordsman into approaching it. Kuno took a few calculated steps, but suddenly stopped as a swift wind blew through him. He inclined his chest to the side, narrowly avoiding a large metallic sword from flying right through him.

"That was…-" Holding his weapon with both hands, Kuno tried to predict his foe's next move. It doesn't matter from where he appeared, from the side, or even jumping the thick tree that separated them, he was ready to dodge and finish it off, whatever "it" was.

"AAAHHH!" The creature yelled loudly as its new weapon cut the tree like paper and its owned rushed towards the former "Blue Thunder". Kuno tried to parry the attack with his own sword, but the opponent's easily broke through it, Tatewaki's head barely moving out of the way of the blade as the creature dashed past him.

They turned towards each other, the creature finally stopping in a place which made it perfectly visible. Kuno squinted his eyes as the image became clear.

A young black haired girl wearing a blue school uniform was standing there, where the creature should have been. Had it escaped?

Her fierce yellow eyes stared angrily at him. She quickly proceeded to jump to a tree, seemingly ignoring the significant weight of the sword she was carrying, leaving him alone in his confusion.

/-

"Chie didn't seem to be a bad person, after all." Akane pondered while slamming the classroom door open. "That stupid Ranma, he made me get worried for nothing! I bet he's laughing right now!"

"Huh?" She blinked a few times, noticing a new girl in the classroom. She was standing on a corner, angrily glaring at something through a window next to her, her read hair tied on a ponytail similar to Ranma's.

A sinking feeling running through her stomach, Akane approached the girl. "Don't tell me…" Akane grabbed the enigma and turned her around, confirming her suspicions.

"RANMA?"

"Not my fault." She spoke slowly, clenching her fists at the humiliation she had just received.

"What are you trying to do now, pervert?" Akane pressed a finger against Ranma's forehead.

"I've already told you, not my fault!" Saotome held her hand, snapping it away from her. "The stupid student council forced me to wear this!"

"The… student… council…?" Akane raised an eyebrow at that answer. She had heard some stories about the council, so it could make sense, if he was found out while in his cursed form… but Ranma could easily just be preparing another one of his tricks…

"I don't care if you believe or not," the redhead opened the window, "but I won't stay here looking like this!"

"Where are you going?"

"I'll search for the principal, of course." Ranma answered, right before jumping through the window, annoyed at her fiancé. "You should be happy I didn't just break that stupid room."

Akane cooled enough to think for a second, quickly jumping outside too. "You're going to tell about your curse, isn't it? Ok, I'll be going with you."

Akane quickly caught up with Ranma, who was standing still, apparently waiting for her. "Let's go?" She grabbed Ranma's arm, but he remained immobile. "Hey, what's the problem?"

"Look at that girl…" He pointed at a girl in a school uniform walking right past them. She had long dark hair combed to the sides and walked right past them, giving a quick glance to Akane as she did it.

"What about her?"

"Her weird aura is similar to the wolf from that day…" Ranma commented, without looking directly at Natsuki.

"You don't mean… She was the one from that day?" Akane gasped. That didn't sound good.

"Maybe." Ranma smirked. "In any case, this place seems to be more exciting than I thought."

"Why are there freaks everywhere…" The youngest Tendo complained, following Ranma to the principal's building.

/

Yuuchi Tate arrived at the kendo club, just to see the whole place in ruins. The entire team just sit on the floor, looking completely unmotivated. The wooden floor was broken in several sections. Pieces of wood from the floor itself and from various broken swords were spread around the room.

"What happened here? Takeda?"

Takeda sit on a corner, head down. "Tatewaki Kuno defeated everyone… by himself…"

"Kuno…" Tate looked at his own hand, closing it into a fist and opening it. "This… has nothing to do with me anymore. I'm sorry." He headed to the exit, but just stopped there.

"Can… I really say that?"

/

The building stood apart from the school itself separated from it by large garden, decorated with roman style columns and shrines. The building itself resembled a small mansion, the only entrance was through two wooden doors right in the middle of that building. The couple approached it silently, stopping right by the front doors and hesitating for a moment. However, as soon as they stood there, the doors opened from inside, revealing a tall woman in a red French maid uniform, bowing respectfully to the teens.

"We've been expecting you, Akane Tendo." The pink haired maid said.

"Me?" Akane pointed at herself surprised.

"Hey! She's just coming along with me!" Ranma protested, standing in front of her. "Anyway, call the principal, I have a 'problem' that needs to be corrected."

"Don't worry, Saotome. I know about your condition very well." From behind the maid, a wheelchair moved, taking front stage. Sitting there was a girl with long light violet hair wearing a green dress. Even though she seemed like an early teenager, she also seemed refined, carrying calmness and tranquility around her.

"She's on the board of directors of Fuuka Gakuen, Mashiro Kazahama." The maid explained.

"THAT little girl is the principal?" Ranma exclaimed looking at her with indignation.

"Welcome to Fuuka Gakuen." Mashiro spoke serenely.

"Please, follow us. We'll discuss matters inside" The maid said while she entered alongside the other girl, leaving the front door open. Ranma and Akane looked at each other, and quickly followed them.

They stopped in a spacious room, sitting around a small table on two couches, while Mashiro stayed on her wheelchair and the maid was still standing, behind her.

"Alright, miss director…" Ranma looked at her worriedly for a second, "you won't steal our energy to go to some adult body, right?"

"Hey, Ranma!" Akane protested, but it was too late. "Forgive him, please, director!"

"What?" The girl smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not your enemy. I invited you here for a reason, Akane Tendo."

"You, who is a HiME."

"HiME?" Ranma and Akane silently wondered, but decided to let her continue the explanation before asking anything.

"That monster you saw yesterday… It was an Orphan. A creature that comes wandering out of somewhere else to our reality."

"So, it was really a monster." Ranma concluded, standing up, he knew he wouldn't like what that girl would say afterwards. He could see that the girl hadn't even noticed his agitation, her attention was entirely focused on Akane.

"The only ones with the power to defeat them are the maidens blessed with the power of the red star. Only HiMEs like you, Akane Tendo."

"HiME? So those gloves…" Akane looked at her own hands, a smile drawing on her face. It seemed like a chance to be important, to do something that not even Ranma could.

"Wait. Are you serious?" The redhead protested, standing in front of Akane. "You've called a bunch of girls here to fight against those things?" Ranma yelled, grabbing the table. "Look, I don't understand anything about HiMEs or Orphans, but I know that there are better ways to handle this situation."

"You carry Jusenkyo's curse…" The violet haired girl asked, though her expression showed that she already knew the answer.

"What?" Both Akane and Ranma stared perplexedly at her.

"Even if you think you could handle the Orphan you saw last night, they'll only become stronger and stronger. Without a HiME's power, it'd be impossible to fight."

Ranma sighed. That wasn't going anywhere. "Anyway, I didn't come here to talk about Akane, I came here because I had some problems with the student council, do something about it! I don't like wearing girl's clothes just because I might get splashed by water!"

"There's another problem too." Akane said, in a more respectful tone. "There was a girl with strange powers accompanied by a monster who attacked us before we arrived here. Was she a HiME? What about the monster?"

"Mr. Saotome. I'll handle your problems regarding the school dress code, just keep wearing that for today. Akane Tendo, that girl was Natsuki Kuga. She has her own reasons for her actions. The monster was a Child, a creature spiritually bonded to a HiME. Hasn't one appeared for you yet?"

"Huh… No, nothing like that. Just two golden gloves."

"Elements but no Child? That's peculiar. However, a Child will most likely appear soon." Mashiro seemed to show small signs of doubt, but soon returned to her neutral expression.

"It's already late, let's go back to class Akane." Ranma called his fiancée, annoyed. "Anyway, miss principal, don't think I'll just stay aside and let you continue your stupid game the way you want." Ranma raised her fist. "I'll show that I can be stronger than any stupid HiME."

"Can't you just shut up, Ranma?" Akane complained, leaving after him.

Mashiro looked at the two teens worriedly, and continued looking at the corridor even after they vanished.

"Why did you tell the boy about the HiMEs?" The maid, Fumi Himeno, asked.

"It might be just a foolish hope… but… Saotome reminds me of someone I used to know..." The younger girl said, closing her eyes under a sudden weight.

/

Hours later, the skies had an orange tint, and most students were leaving classes already, standing in the middle of the crowd, Mai looked around frustrated "Takumi!"

"I can't believe he'd just disappear in the first day…" She complained to no one in particular.

"Are you looking for someone?" A boy, wearing the uniform for middle school students, a white shirt and gray pants, approached Mai, looking at her with his bright yellow eyes. He was grinning confidently. "A small lost boy… perhaps?"

"Who are you?" Even though the boy wasn't physically imposing, somehow Mai felt threatened by his mere presence.

"I get the feeling that something awful might happen if you don't hurry up, my princess…" The boy smiled while throwing a small white box to Tokiha. "A small lost boy might be needing your help…"

"Takumi!"

/

The black haired Ranma stood at the top of a particularly high tree in the middle of a forest situated next to Fukka Gakuen, wearing his blue pants and red Chinese shirt. The sun was already setting, lighting the horizon with an orange tone.

He breathed heavily, focusing his ki on his hands. Small particles of light started converging to them, appearing out of nowhere.

"I can do it. I will do it." Ranma repeated to himself while trying to gather energy on his hands. During the last battle, he noticed that the monster, "Orphan" seemed to be strangely affected by that blast of positive energy. It carried a negative aura, so that made sense. Of course, he also had learned that the Moko Takabisha just wasn't strong enough to finish them off, he needed something even stronger.

Ranma put his hands together, uniting the two small spheres of light into a single, bigger one. However, right after that, the sphere dispersed. "I'll just have to try again." Saotome told himself. However, before he could continue, the cry of a child echoed through the forest.

"What?" Ranma heard it and immediately dropped from the tree, running in the direction of the source of the sounds. A second scream was heard, followed by the howl of some unknown creature. "Another Orphan…?" He sweated. "It's time for a rematch."

In a few seconds, Ranma found a cave in the middle of the forest and entered. The main tunnel leaded to a spacious room, lying in the middle of that place was a boy Ranma had seen in that ship, right behind him there was a tall monster. "Orphan." The martial artist repeated, looking at the thing before him.

Rather than the previous one, which was barely taller than a human, this one was basically a giant and its form was all but humanoid. It had 4 legs with a torso extending from the front of its body, and, from that torso, 10 arms, each one ending in a large gray claw. Its two round eyes shinned with malice, lusting after its prey. Its body and skin seemed similar to a lizard, but the face seemed out of some insect with round red eyes and pincers around the mouth.

The boy was unconscious, a hand over his own heart. Ranma jumped towards the monster, spinning in midway and kicking its head vertically. The head was raised by the attack, however, the monster's body didn't move at all.

"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma yelled while projecting energy from his palms, the two blasts of light hit the monster, which looked away from the child, focusing on Ranma.

"Not strong enough for this one." Ranma complained, jumping away from the Orphan.

"Takumi!" A female student ran into the cave, towards the boy fallen in the middle.

"Huh?" Ranma recognized the girl… it was the one from the ferry, Mai Tokiha.

The monster suddenly thrust its claws towards the girl, but Saotome jumped between them, blocking the strike but getting thrown into a wall.

"Ranma?" Mai looked at him surprised. She didn't understand what was happening there, she didn't understand what was that monster. However, she knew that she needed to protect her brother. Ever since her mother died, that was her mission, that was her role. She wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. Mai faced the monster, looking at him daringly, even though apparently there wasn't anything she could do. "Takumi!"

The eyes of the monster shone again as it swung its claw towards Mai, however, before it could hit her, a red light, coming from her breast, enveloped her body. Soon afterwards, a column of fire erupted around her body, bursting through the cave's ceiling and crossing the skies.

"She's a HiME…?" Ranma wondered, slowly getting up. When the fire dispersed, there were 4 golden rings, each one floating around one of her hands and ankles.

Reacting in surprised to her own state, Mai brought back her hands defensively. Instantly, a wall of fire formed in front of her and smashed itself against the monster pushing it back.

"It's hot…" Mai looked at the rings spinning around her limbs. "What are these…?"

"Calm down, Mai. Those are elements, proof of a HiME's power." Suddenly, the voice of that white haired boy echoed in the cave as he appeared, sitting on a rock encrusted into the wall.

"You're… from just now?" The orange haired girl stared at the boy that had somehow gotten himself a seat in a place that seemed just impossible to reach.

"HiMEs… HiMEs…? Is that everything you talk about around here?" Ranma retorted.

The monster suddenly jumped towards Mai, showing agility previously unseen that seemed just unnatural considering its height and weight. However, the bracelets around Mai suddenly spun and she burst through the air, grabbing her brother just as she floated beside him, removing him from the center of the cave right before the monster crushed it.

Ranma jumped to the cave's wall, rebounding from it and flying directly to the monster's face "Moko Takabisha!" He yelled, right as his hands touched the monster's eyes, creating an explosion of light that actually seemed to hurt the monster, which cried in pain.

"Huh… Is that a HiME too?" Mai asked to the boy sitting on the rocks, but he stood still answering.

"He… is just an uninvited guest." The white haired boy said.

The monster's damaged head suddenly fell, a new head, similar to the one of a lizard, sprouting on its place.

"What the…?" Ranma shouted in surprised, but barely had time to react. The monster suddenly thrust towards him, its legs suddenly raised and its entire lower body started spinning like an inverted helicopter. With the new form, the monster crossed the cave in instants, appearing before Ranma and hitting him with one of its claws, pushing him into the ground.

"AAAAAHHH"

It quickly lost interest on the martial artist, facing Mai and her brother again and thrusting towards them, only stopping when a wall of fire appeared on its way. However, drops of acid fell from its mouth, falling closer and closer to Mai's brother, who still remained unconscious on the ground.

Suddenly, the monster was thrown to the site as a jumping Ranma kicked its chest while rocketing past it. "I've already got your attacks." Saotome smiled. "There's no way you can hit me again!"

The monster thruster towards Ranma, trying to hit it again with its claws, but he just dodged each and every attack from its hands.

"I can dodge this thing's attacks… but I can't really hurt him as I am right now…" Ranma complained to himself, moving next to a wall and dodging, letting the monster get stuck on a wall.

"Mai, look behind you." The boy with golden eyes said.

"Huh?" Mai looked behind her. There was a huge red sword encrusted into the wall, several green eyes glowing through holes in it. "What is this?"

"To cut to the point, this is your guardian, Kagutsuchi. Of all the childs, for that one to be yours…" The white haired boy somehow had descended from the top of the cave, standing next to Mai herself.

"Now, choose whether or not to accept him, to fight alongside him. Mai… no, 'My princess'!"

Mai looked at the sword, carefully. Was that boy even speaking the truth? Would that thing be an ally?

"It goes without saying, but… If you're going to fight… you'll have to put what's most important to you on the line." The boy smiled, and immediately ran outside.

Meanwhile, Ranma tried to produce more blasts of energy to hurt the monster, but the light dissipated harmlessly on his hands. "Is my confidence already drained? Damn it… The longer a fight goes on… the weaker this attack gets…"

"If you're saying to put my life on the line…" Mai said, grasping the sword. "I'll do it without any hesitation! Kagutsuchi!"

The girl pulled the swords from the rock and threw it on the ground, immediately flying over her brother and picking him up. The monster moved away from the sword, while a giant flaming spiral pillar emerged from the ground.

From the giant flames, much larger than the column Mai had created by herself, emerged a giant metallic head. A white mechanical dragon with a red sword encrusted on its head and giant wings of fire appeared. Its lower body lacked legs, looking like a huge serpent. The new creature dwarfed even the Orphan, making the previously unbeatable monster look like a small lizard.

"What is that?" Mai yelled when the creature appeared.

"That's a… Child…?" Ranma gasped at the sheer power emanated by that thing.

Kagutsuchi looked curiously with its six emerald eyes at Mai, before facing the Orphan. Suddenly, it opened a previous unseen mouth, revealing organic teeth and tongue as it howled savagely.

It started inhaling air, pushing even rocks towards him, both Ranma and Mai looked at it with pure surprised. Its abdomen seemed to be filled by something, and suddenly it lowered its head, throwing out a giant ball of fire that consumed everything on its path, including the Orphan.

/

Akane stood at a balcony, admiring the sight of the mountain next to the school. However, suddenly, a wall of fire burst forth, painting of red the dark sky, crossing almost the entire forest.

"What…?" She looked at the visage with surprise and admiration, however, everything was suddenly replaced by terror when she realized the situation. "Ranma!"

/


	5. Chapter 5

A beautiful girl with long straight black hair, carefully combed and tied into a low ponytail, sit on the back of a high school classroom. Contrasting to her hair, the clothes she sported were a black male school uniform, black jacket and pants. She sit in the back of the classroom, looking impatiently at two empty seats nearby her. Had they really left without telling anyone? There were some rumors going around about both going to some private academy, and these absences certainly seemed like proof… However, Konatsu said he had seen them going around town just yesterday… So they probably hadn't left… yet.

"Miss Kuonji!" A juvenile voiced cried out, bringing Ukyo's attention back to reality. A little kid with long hair was standing in front of the black board, wearing a yellow suit. Although odd looking for a teacher, she was basically accepted as normal among other oddities spread around certain locations of the world, including Nerima itself.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Ukyo excused herself just as Hinako raised a small coin, pointing it towards her. The other students looked frightened for a moment, but soon the tension evaporated as the small teacher put away the coin, apparently satisfied with Ukyo's attitude.

"I really hope Konatsu wasn't lying about Ranma…" Ukyo thought. "Thinking about it… I didn't see Nabiki and Kuno either…" Nabiki thought, apparently staring at the black board, but just impatiently tapping her fingers on the chair.

**Run, My HiME!**

**Chapter 5 – Calm Clouds**

A weary traveler carrying a backpack easily larger than himself looked disappointedly at his surroundings. He was standing in the middle of a vast green field near a forest in some inhospitable region. He was just a 16 years old teenager, but his eyes carried an unbelievable fatigue and weariness. His yellow shirt and black pants were drenched by sweat, and he heavily breathed. How long had it been since he had seen civilization? One month? Two?

Ryoga Hibiki sit on the grass, completely exhausted. Even his hair was just as wet as his body and he couldn't even close his mouth, exposing his fangs. Behind him, somehow, there was only the abrupt end of the hill he was standing in and the ocean, which he hadn't even noticed until a few minutes ago. In front of him, there was a dense forest and a mountain, with a large almost rectangular crater cutting through both. The scenario seemed almost surreal. Had him lost his way so much he had ended up in another world?

"No, that's ridiculous!" Ryoga protested aloud. There was no one in that empty island, "is this even an island?", who could hear him anyway. After having rested for a few moments, the lost boy got up, unpacking a few things from luggage. It was a small lunchbox, tied with a white handkerchief.

"Akari…" Ryoga sighed. She really loved him, and yet he couldn't keep a simple promise to her… "I'm the worst guy in the world…" He lamented Anyway, he'd just need to eat-

"Nothing?" Hibiki suddenly returned from his half asleep state, noticing that his lunch had just vanished. "What happened here!" He stood up around, quickly looking around and noticing the silhouette of some animal running away already in the distance.

Even though speed wasn't exactly his specialty, he still was much faster than any average human, exploding towards the retreating quadruped shadow. The shadow tried to speed up, but Ryoga continued to approach it, jumping towards it as soon as he was close enough. Of course, only after jumping he noticed that what he was running after wasn't a dangerous animal… but a young girl in a sailor uniform. Either way, it was too, late, and Ryoga ended up falling on her back, immediately grabbing the kid by her white shirt.

"Release me! Release me!" She yelled repeatedly while Ryoga held her by the blue collar, spinning her around to face him.

"Who are you?" The lost boy examined her curiously. Her face was cute, but the only feminine traits of her hairstyle were two lateral curls in front of her ears, reaching her shoulders. She was obviously aggressive, trying to shake herself out of Ryoga's grip, unsuccessfully, until her face suddenly brightened as she did a big smile.

Ryoga shouted in pain right afterwards as the girl bit his hand, finally escaping from his grasp. He ran right after her again, completely forgetting his backpack and lunch.

/

A large crowd of high school students gathered in the middle of a natural road that connected the dormitories to the main school building looking at the scarred mountain. A large gray scar cut through the middle of the vegetation in the mountain. From far away, it looked almost like some kind of landing path.

Chie Harada stood in front of the crowd, taking pictures of the destruction with a portable camera and looking intently at it through her glasses. Her hair was somewhat messy, with several strands falling on her face, and she wore her usual variation of the female uniform, missing the red bow present in the official standard, but didn't actually stand out the most there, due to a certain male student. Kuno Tatewaki stood there, wearing his usual kendo uniform and completely ignoring the school regulations.

"This was merely the first sign." Kuno stated, crossing his arms while standing behind the two girls.

"First sign?" Aoi Senou wondered, walking from Chie's side to Kuno's, looking at him curiously.

"Now that the sorcerer Saotome is here, destruction and calamities will haunt this school!" Kuno held his wooden sword, pointing it at the trail of destruction left in the mountain. "But, don't fear, fair maidens of Fuuka Gakuen, this Tatewaki Kuno won't let Ranma Saotome do as he pleases!"

"Did- Did you actually see what happened here yesterday?" Aoi asked, surprised. Chie stopped taking pictures and changed her interest to the odd transfer student.

Kuno smirked. "I have no need for visual proof for the truth felt by my heart!"

"He's… a bit weird, isn't he?" Aoi smiled.

"Forget it…" Chie thought, immediately turning her attention elsewhere.

/

Ryoga continued running after the wild girl through the field next to Fuuka Gakuen.

"Aaah!" Ryoga shouted savagely, "Food thief, stop right there!"

The girl had gotten some distance from Ryoga, who although focused on her, was also worried about not losing track of the things he had left behind. She stood next to the back of a small apartment building, several windows were open, but they were too tall for an untrained human to jump there.

"There's nowhere to escape!" Ryoga bared his fangs, pointing accusatively at the younger girl who just turned around, facing the wall. "Huh?"

Ryoga saw the girl crouching to get some support from the ground, quickly thrusting herself upwards, breaking through a window in the third floor. Ryoga blinked.

He turned around, realizing that he was completely lost. So, he only had one choice. Quickly, Hibiki leaped through the air after her, rolling past the broken glass.

Inside the dark room, the girl just stared at Ryoga in surprise. "Enemy!" She shouted, quickly transforming her surprised into anger.

"Look! I give up!" Ryoga said putting his hands forward defensively. "I don't want to fight with a little girl… and… I'm kind of lost right now…" He looked away from her shamefully. However, she didn't say anything. Suddenly, he heard a heavy blow against the floor, and looked at the girl again… she was lying on the floor, unconscious.

"Wha…WHAT?" Ryoga yelled in surprise, running from one side to the other of the unknown and dark apartment, stumbling on various objects. After hitting some table, he stopped, looking at the girl again. "Ok, Ryoga, calm down. Calm down. Now, let's try to fix this."

/

In front of the main school gate, Reito, in his personalized black uniform, greeted Mai and her brother as they walked past him. Yuuichi Tate stood there too, right behind him. Mai's gaze was somehow directly attracted to the Reito. He just seemed to have an aura of confidence and tranquility around him.

"Mai, Takumi, you haven't slept in the dormitories yet due to yesterday's incident." Reito said calmly, carrying a faint smile.

Mai sighed, looking away from him. She really didn't want to be reminded about the other day.

"Oh, there's an official explanation about yesterday's incident," Reito said, bringing surprise to Mai's face. "Lighting."

"Lighting?" Mai asked incredulously, getting weird looks from the three other students who stood close to her.

"What? Do you have some other explanation?" Tate teased her, getting just an angry look as a response.

"Anyway," Reito said, "Do you want me to take you to the dormitories?"

"Huh… of course!" Mai's eyes brightened for a moment.

"Then, I'll take Takumi, and Tate takes Mai." Reito concluded as Mai and Yuuichi looked annoyed at each other.

/

The nose of the younger girl picked up a scent, and slowly, she opened her eyes. She jumped from her bed, quickly looking towards the source of the smell. Ryoga was seemingly preparing some food next to the stove and kitchen sink, peeling several fruits. He stopped, looking over his shoulder at the younger girl.

The girl looked angrily at him, after noticing who it was, while he defensively raised his arms. "Stop! Stop! Ok?"

"Huh?"

"Look," he scratched the back of his head, "I'm… kind of lost right now… You want to eat something right?"

Before Mikoto could even answer, her stomach growled for her.

"I'm preparing some food with what I could find here… and we can eat it together." As Ryoga spoke, the expression of the girl softened, her yellow eyes started shinning as she looked at a small rice cake.

"I'm not very good at this, but it should be enough…" Ryoga explained.

She nodded positively, quickly leaping to his side and smiling at the food.

"Ah, I think we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is Ryoga Hibiki." The older teenager said.

"Mikoto!" She answered, apparently still delighted by the scent of food.

"Are you living here by yourself?" Ryoga wondered.

"I've just… arrived…" Mikoto spoke normally for once. "I'm searching for my brother. That's it."

"Brother?" Ryoga looked at the young girl, worrying about her a bit, "So, you have no family taking care of you right now?"

"I don't like her." Mikoto walked around Ryoga while talking, it was increasingly obvious to him that she was getting annoyed as she answered his questions.

"Ok, ok, I won't ask anything else. The food should be ready soon!"

/

Ranma saw a bright light in front of him, and leaped forward, intending to dodge the fireball, however, he just hit his head against a wall.

"Don't we have quite a healthy person here?"

Ranma heard the voice of a woman, and finally realized just where he was. He wasn't in the cave anymore, but in an infirmary, dressed only with his blue pants. A woman in a white coat, probably a doctor, sit next to the bed he had just leapt from, and Akane, still dressed in the fuuka academy uniform, was sitting on another nearby chair, sleeping.

The doctor smiled. "You just suffered minor burns, but there was a concussion too and you were unconscious, so I thought keeping under observation was for the best."

"Was there anyone else hurt?" Ranma asked, noticing the absence of the orange haired girl and her brother.

"There was another boy too, but he has already left with his sister." The doctor not only was calm herself, she almost irradiated peace to that room. Ranma sighed, cooling off. Akane gave him a blue bag, which he quickly opened to get a white shirt similar to the red one that had probably been completely ruined in the previous night.

"Hey, Akane!" Saotome poked her forehead with a finger, startling her. "I'm fine, already, let's go?"

"Ranma…?" She was annoyed at his attitude, but also happy because he was fine, resulting in an expression that seemed like a broken smile.

"Huh…" Ranma continued, facing the exit of that room, looking away from her. "Thank you." The youngest Tendo smiled to herself.

Ranma opened the exist door, just staring at it in surprised. The skies were already orange tinted. "Did I sleep this much?"

"See? Don't attempt to be a hero by yourself again!" Akane pouted. "Those weird weapons exist to fight against those 'Orphans', after all."

"So, Ranma's fine?" Nabiki was waiting for them outside of the clinic, wearing the Fuuka uniform.

"Classes are already finished?" Akane was disappointed. She just wanted to have a normal school year in that place… but, apparently, it wouldn't be easy.

"Anyway, this is sudden, but, Ranma, I'm interested on whatever is happening around here." Nabiki said, looking straight at him. "This place has a strong community already, and I need some exclusive info to break into things here."

"… Couldn't you even ask about my health or something?" Ranma replied unenthusiastically.

"Actually, I'm curious about last night too…" Akane said. Ranma just sighed in response.

"Alright, alright…. I'll say everything I know about yesterday, but Akane handles the part about HiMEs." Ranma pointed at his fiancée.

"Fine!" Akane scowled. Why couldn't he be enthusiastic about this?

Tate and Mai had walked past the infirmary building while Ranma and the others talked among themselves, ignoring them.

"We're almost in there." Yuuichi Tate said, closing his eyes, "Frankly, I don't know why the vice-president didn't take you here himself."

Mai smiled after Reito was mentioned. "The vice-president is kinda cool. He'd probably be a good brother."

"He's an amazing person in many ways," Tate sighed, "he and president Fujino are said to be the greatest student council couple in this school's history."

"Ah? He's taken?" Mai stopped walking, looking away from the road.

Tate still took a few steps before noticing the girl had stopped. He turned back to look at her, her gaze was fixated on the mark left in the mountain.

"You think lighting could do that?" Yuuchi wondered. "Weird things sure are happening lately. Maybe, you're possessed?"

"What?" Mai protested, "Mind your own business! Besides, you're not getting involved with me anymore!"

"Whatever. Look, you can see the dorms from here," Tate pointed at a building near that street. "Go by yourself!"

"Just shut up!" Mai answered back, marching through the road by herself.

"I really don't understand her." Tate said as Mai walked away from him.

Mai remembered the previous night due to Tate's words, something that she had been trying to forget but was constantly reminded. Right after waking up, she ended up having to face the principal, which explained the role of the HiMEs and their battle. Although she agreed to it, she still was just trying to forget those events. Worrying about her brother's health was enough for her.

With those thoughts in her head, Mai arrived at her designated apartment. Thinking about it, she was supposed to have a roommate, but still hadn't met her…

When she arrived in front of the door of her designated apartment, she noticed the lights inside were on. "I guess I'll meet her right now." She thought while opening the front door.

Mai just stared at the room in surprise. The apartment itself was plain for an apartment, but very well made for a school dormitory. It seemed to be a single room, combining bedroom, kitchen and living room into a single well furnished place. However, she didn't expect to see a guy sitting alongside a young girl, eating an apple while sitting on the floor.

The boy, a black haired teenager, stood up in surprise when Mai arrived. "Eh… Are you my roommate?" Mai looked at the girl, who just nodded happily, with her mouth full of food.

"Isn't that the drowning girl from the boat?" Mai silently thought, staring at her for a while, before turning around "And… who are you?" Mai looked curiously at Ryoga, "her brother or something?"

"Brother?" Mikoto repeated those words, glancing at Ryoga for a brief moment, quickly dismissing the idea. Ryoga himself looked nervously at Mai.

"Ha! Ha! A-Actually, I was lost and she fell unconscious after… huh, forget it! I mean, I'm sorry!" Ryoga stuttered through his words, scratching his head in embarrassment. How could he tell her that he was completely lost?

"Do you even know him?" Mai inquired the younger girl, looking suspiciously at Hibiki.

Mikoto nodded negatively, before filling her mouth with more food.

"GET OUT!" Mai yelled at the lost boy, who immediately bowed to her.

"I'm sorry!" He said. Ryoga turned back, opening a nearby wooden door and closing it behind him.

"He isn't a bad person!" Mikoto said,

"Even if he doesn't look dangerous, you shouldn't let any strange people enter like this!" Mai told Mikoto, who just continued eating, blissfully ignoring her. "But… you're strange too…" Mai silently added to herself.

"By the way…" Tokiha wondered. "Are there two exits?" She stared at the door the weird guy had just ran through and opened it, only to see a bathroom. "What?"

She looked around, but the strange guy seemingly wasn't anywhere, having completely vanished.

"What's this…?" Mai raised an eyebrow, the boy's clothes were next to the bathtub, but the boy himself had disappeared completely. The bathroom had a large glass window right behind the bathtub, but it was closed… and he'd have be to naked to run around outside… "What's going on here?"

"What happened to my normal life!" Mai Tokiha lamented loudly, kneeling down inside the bathroom while yelling to the skies.

/

"Hm…" Nabiki grinned after hearing Ranma's and Akane's explanations. "This sounds interesting… So, most of the students in this academy don't know about these Orphans? Not even the local newspaper had any pictures or mentioned any rumors about that."

"What's your big idea, Nabiki?" Akane and Ranma looked suspiciously at her sister.

"Nothing… right now." Nabiki smiled confidently, "but I think researching about this academy might turn out to be profitable…"

"How so?" Akane wondered.

"Think about it… If the academy knows about these monsters and wants to protect the students with these HiMEs, why are the classes going on as normal?" Nabiki noted. "These monsters are only appearing here, right? Isn't that why they're gathering these "HiMEs? To fight against them and protect this place?"

Akane looked annoyed at Nabiki's words. Was she trying to underplay her new position? She had just been chosen to be a super hero! There was no need to think much about it!

"Or… they're gathering HiMEs here because those monsters are coming after them..."

Akane opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.

"The monster in the ship?" Ranma crossed his arms.

"That's it. Of course, it's just a total guess… but this entire scenario seems really interesting…" Nabiki smiled.

"How would we go about confirming that?" Akane asked, examining her sister's face to try to read her intentions. She seemed to be enjoying those events too much.

"Well, it's already late, so I'll start my investigation tomorrow. Let's go to the dormitories, sis." Nabiki said, turning her back to the couple.

Akane glanced at Ranma, who just shrug his shoulders.

"See you tomorrow, Akane." Saotome slowly left right afterwards.

The sisters went on their way to the female dormitory of the Fuuka academy. Akane walked slowly, getting left behind by her older sister. The dormitory building was the same one where the incident with Ryoga had happened during that day, a small apartment building. It wasn't something extravagant for usual standards, but it was certainly big and unusual for high school accommodations.

Akane stopped right at the entrance of the building. The orange shine of the sun had already disappeared, replaced by the faint moonlight and nearby light bulbs.

Near the double doors that were the main entrance to the first floor of the building, a girl stood, gazing at nowhere. Her hair was long and straight, and she kept a cold gaze forward. She was dressed with an altered school uniform which sported an open jacket and an oversized white shirt under it. Considering what she knew about the HiMEs… like Ranma had suspected, she might really have been the one that attacked them the other day… but… why?

Akane stopped, staring at the girl, who apparently didn't notice her presence initially.

"What? Is there a problem?" Natsuki asked, crossing her arms, without even turning to face Akane.

"What's up with your atittude? You were the one who attacked me the other day, weren't you?" Akane exploded, punching the wall right beside Natsuki with enough power to leave a mark there. "Why didn't you want me to come here? You're a HiME too, right, Natsuki Kuga?"

Natsuki glanced with surprise at Akane's strength, but quickly recomposed herself, facing Akane with he standard cold eyes. "So, I assume you already talked with the principal?"

"What was all that about dying if I came here?" Akane yelled angrily.

"What's up with your tone? Do you want everyone to learn about this?" Natsuki wondered. Was that girl really such an idiot?

"Sorry… but, answer me…" Akane looked away from the other girl, speaking more calmly.

"There are many other HiMEs in this academy besides you, me and the girl from yesterday, although they haven't been identified yet."

"What?" Akane looked at her again, while Natsuki continued with a determined expression.

"There are people plotting to do something by gathering these HiMEs."

"That's just like what Nabiki said…" Akane opened her mouth, looking in surprise at the suspicious girl. "Why couldn't this just be a gift…" She silently lamented.

"That's why I attempted to prevent more HiMEs from gathering here." Natsuki concluded with a sad smile, "but, obviously, I failed completely."

"Do you still want to fight?" Akane inquired.

"No, you're already here. I might as well forget that idea." Natsuki sighed.

"Nice! Nice!" The white haired boy appeared next to them, coming walking from the dormitory's entrance.

"Nagi?" Natsuki scowled at him, but he just continued, arms behind his head, wearing the same white shirt and black pants from the other day.

"Do you know him?" Akane glared at him. There was just something about the little kid she just didn't like.

"Well, I was worried about you, but it seems there was no problem at all." He grinned at Akane, who fumed, barely holding back herself, from trying to punch the smug boy.

"I hope you're enjoying this little break… because it won't last long." Nagi grinned. Akane attempted to grab him, but he jumped several meters into the air, landing in a balcony of the fourth floor.

"Who is he?" Akane stared at the boy, who was comfortably sitting up there in the building.

"Who knows…" Natsuki didn't even bother looking at him. She turned around, going through the main doorway while Akane remained outside, staring at the weird figure.

/

"What… is this…?" Ranma stared at the person who stood right in front of him right after he entered in his apartment.

"Huh?" Kuno stared back, pointing at the person that had just entered his room. "Foul Saotome?"

"It's _Ranma_ Saotome…" The martial artist corrected him, while calmly kicking the kendoist into a wall. He looked at the dizzy Kuno with disgust. "We'll… have to share a room? This is just great…"

/


End file.
